January 29, 1895: Martí signs the order to rise up

On January 29, 1895, while exiled in New York and after overcoming great obstacles, José Martí signed the order to rise up that marked the beginning of the last war for independence, impelled as he was by the demands of historical necessity and his immense love for Cuba, then under Spanish rule.

The document dictating that the fight would start across Cuba on February 24 was personally delivered to the patriot Juan Gualberto Gomez by Miguel Angel Duque de Estrada, who brought it to Cuba from Florida using secret and clever means: he was casually carrying an unlit cigar on his lips as he passed through customs in Havana, except that rolled inside it was the precious document bearing Martí’s signature in his capacity as Delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and organizer of the Necessary War with the help of Cuban émigrés in the U.S. and other nations, in addition of course to the pro-independence forces in the island.

The Apostle of Independence had accomplished an enormous task to mobilize and unite the revolutionary forces, not without years of sacrifices and dedication, even before he founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party and the newspaper Patria in 1892.

During his countless trips, he contacted great warriors like Máximo Gómez, Antonio Maceo, Flor Crombet, José Maceo, Calixto García, Bartolomé Masó and Guillermón Moncada, among others he also won over to the cause.

However, on January 12, an act of treason by an agent collaborating with the New York police and the Spanish secret service led to the seizure of a large cache of weapons, ammunition and ships ready to be sent to the liberating forces in Cuba from the port of La Fernandina in Florida, which dealt Martí a devastating blow, what with his titanic efforts assisted by Tampa-based Cuban cigar makers and other humble people.

The future General Enrique Loynaz, then a young aide, never forgot the effects of the hard setback on the Cuban hero, or his categorical refusal when he Loynaz asked him for the order to execute the traitor, because the revolutionaries should never behave as those scoundrels did.

Understanding nothing or blinded by their euphoria, Spain and the reactionary fundamentalist forces inside Cuba believed that the successful action had fatally wounded the cause of the mambi fighters, but they were wrong, because the fact that they made a lot of fuss over their victory helped the patriots realize how strong they really were and how much more they could do and led them to close ranks around the Delegate, the extraordinary man of enlightening and lively words whose honest conduct none had excelled. Not for nothing had he earned the epithet of Apostle.

January 29 was as decisive as the glorious February 24, 1895 would be later on, even if it hurts to think that it also started a countdown to the very early fall in combat of the Cuban National Hero in Dos Rios on May 19 of the same year.

We Cubans feel that sadness, but also the inspiration that is always rekindled by the thought that José Martí could finally arrive in Cuba, together with Máximo Gómez, on April 11, 1895, to begin to fulfill his lifetime dream: to give his life, if necessary, for the Homeland.