Cepeda Anthology

This Hour of Cuba

Last Updated (Tuesday, 02 August 2011 22:49) Written by John Walter Sunday, 20 February 2011 19:09

Speech given at the Rotary Club of Matanzas, Monday, the 10th of October 1955,
the 87th anniversary of the beginning of the (First) War of Independence.

Printed in the Christian Herald, Havana 1955.

Translation:
John Walter

     
Cuba in this Hour
Rafael Cepeda

     
     
      This hour of Cuba - when the celebration of a tenth of October (1) seems a faraway thing
in time, distance, and memory - is the hour of repentance and confession. We have sinned
against the Homeland, against the heroic Inheritance, against our promising Future, against
the very Dignity of all Cubans. The minute has come to weep over our apathy and crime.

     
      It’s only eleven years ago that I found myself in the United States finishing my studies,
when the resounding triumph of a president elected by an immense majority of Cubans
was announced in the Chicago press. (2) For the entire public, and especially for the youth
of the time, it represented the conquest of something that had daily made them anxious,
the climax of a hope and a re-vindication. Returning to Havana I found myself astonished
and delighted: its streets seemed much wider, more splendid; its public buildings more
imposing and impressive, more luxurious; and the stores fuller and thriving. The Cuban
flag waved more gallantly, more beautifully, and more triumphantly. It wasn’t only the
ity but my fellow countrymen as well who seemed bathed in a stupendous wave of energy
and optimism, confidence and security. We had reached the long and eagerly awaited
summit, and we set about abundantly enjoying that transcendental hour…

     
      But only a few years have passed, and the contrast of that hour could not be more bitter.
(3)  How this present hour of Cuba pains a Cuban who loves his land and places his trust in
the virtues of his compatriots, in Cuba this hour!  That other tenth of October- my first since
having been absent for some years – appeared to me replete with enthusiasm and future vision. 
This tenth of October – in this hour of Cuba – seems to me  rachitic, apathetic and sterile.  
What had happened in such a short time? For diverse reasons it is not possible now to explore
each event, man, or word; but yes, I believe it advisable to compare this dark hour in Cuba
with that other illustrious hour, the tenth of October 1868.

     
      Of course in this analysis of Cuba’s drama I cannot play a disinterested part because that
would be an affront to my convictions as an honorable Cuban. I wish to speak as a member
of this society, not as a judge. I want to point out with my hand, not ramble on like a mere
litigant. I want to take the denouncer’s initiative and assume the entire responsibility of the
protest. In this I want to be a disciple of Cosme de la Torriente (4)  who was declared
incompetent in his efforts to return the Republic to its constitutionality and law because he
was not impartial. This old mambi could not manage it, and neither could any honorable Cuban
because the things that move one to rage cannot be placated with a diplomatic smile. One cannot
be a photographer when one loves one’s country, one must be a surgeon.

      
      Let us begin then with the social classes.  Jorge Mañach said, observing the nineteenth
century in Cuba that “This was no mean exploit” (5)  I would extend that; I would say that
it was enormously heroic.  The nineteenth Century Cuban society was loyal to its times, and
acted in accordance to that which could be expected. Martí (6) points to this truth as well:
that the rich in Cuba (those everywhere who normally oppose war) were those who made
the war of 68. (7)  Francisco Vicente Aguilera (8), Carlos Manuel de Cespedes (9), Francisco
Maceo Ossoreo (10) and Perucho Figueredo (11) were professionals in law, aristocrats, and
well to do.  Salvador Cisneros Betancourt (12), Ignacio Agramonte (13), and Bartolomé Masó
(14) were upper class men. And it may not be stated – as have adduced one or another stubborn
Marxist – that for this same reason it was a war of “economic motivations”. No one surrenders,
in the interest of achieving a mere economic ideal, all the wealth and capital laboriously
accumulated for years; no one surrenders the security of his family, and no one surrenders
his own life as those did…

     
      The nineteenth century Cuban aristocracy represented itself with great dignity in the heroic
trials; but in this hour in Cuba, those upper classes had changed in spirit. Today, the upper
classes are not moved by any idealism, nor do they assume - in economy, politics, and in culture
 – any risk at all. Their ethic is that of accumulation, profit, power, and facil self-enrichment.
This materialistic ethic serves no creative end, neither for living, nor for dying for an ideal.
For these reasons they are classes whose soul, like that of Lot’s wife, have become statues of salt.
(Gen 19:26) These classes – or better said with more exactitude, the all-powerful groups that
have formed within them – control all the organisms of creation and defense of privilege;  this
is their office, their role, the cause of their sterility, and their marginalization of risk.

     
      These “upper classes” constitute the untouchable characters in the Cuban drama. They are
above and inaccessible to conflict and shock; perhaps their only beneficiaries are their bank
accounts, for the people are never the beneficiary. The peasant masses remain without roofs,
without schools and land, now as before. No, the people are never the beneficiary; the beneficiary
is always outside the danger zones, far from the swipes, tooth marks and shots. The beneficiary
is a master in the art of winning without committing himself.

       

         Among those men of ’68 – only two serve as illustrious  examples: Rafael Morales (15) and
Manuel Sanguily (16) – were intellectuals before becoming warriors, and continued serving
the interests of the Cuban Revolution with the pen, which in their case may be considered
sword. Our present intellectuals – and what a contrast! – are responsible because of their
silence. Their cowardice, their critical incapacity, their horror of commitment, their
superstitious attachment to routine, and their professional veneration for myths has led them
to be marginalized from the drama and to be cloistered in an ivory tower of “pure intellectuals”. 
Someone, (whose name I don’t remember now), one said, “Every word has resonances;
but silence does as well. ” The silence of the cowardly intellectual class - solely self-absorbed
and enthroned in its commodious castle – is undoubtedly the silence that has the best resonance.
Again, Martí,  “There is nothing more servile than talents put in the disposition of tyrants.”
(17) (I’m  recalling this quote by memory; I’m not so sure of the exact words, but clearly the
intent is correct.) 

 
     
      Silence is not the only indication, rather also a proof of moral rupture, of irresponsibility
and fear. Whoever silences is responsible for what is left unsaid, and should have been said,
he is responsible for his truth cowardly muffled. “Truth cannot be treated like canned food,”
- preached Kaj Munk, a Danish Christian leader  confronting the Gestapo in 1944 at the height
of its power – “that can be salted and later be used little by little as it may be necessary. Because
the truth cannot be conserved; it only exists as a living thing, and only when it appears may it
be put to use.”

     

       And one more parallel: That group of ’68 was comprised of  – in every one of its men – a leader.
The boss was Céspedes, but it could also have been Aguilera or Agramonte; because in each of
them the people could see a sincere passion and hear a legitimate voice. In this hour of Cuba
the legitimate voices are absent that could filter through the partitions of public insensitivity and
indifference and arrive at the heart of the Cubans of this generation.

     
      We could put, among the classified advertisements in the newspapers, one that read:
Men wanted. Men who dedicate without reserve their service to the country; men who -
when they find their civic conscience wounded - don’t hold back to measure the proportions
and consequences of their denouncement, nor consider how much it might cost them in
freedom and life. Men like Francisco Vicente Aguilera, old and wealthy, who at having been
called before the military governor to respond to the accusation of having shouted “Die” to Spain,
expressed, “I assure you that I had no part in that; but I also swear to you as a gentleman, that
if Francisco Vicente Aguilero were to take part in things of that nature some day, that Spain
will tremble.” Men like Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, ordered to surrender and let the revolution
falter; whose son, a prisoner of the Spanish army, faced a death threat said, “All the Cubans in
the jungle are my sons.” And the son of his flesh was shot.
     
     
      I have spoken of the “upper classes”, and I want to point out – before incurring any error –
that it is not only in them where our evil incubates; it’s there too in the other classes, those
corrupted by gambling, liquor, male oriented occultist religion, Santaria and superstition.
It is they that show themselves reluctant to progress and all types of culture. It is they who
sell their vote, sell their conscience and sons, or stir up the sea to be fuel for the sharks. It is
they who fall victim to their passions, with their fanaticisms and demonic cruelty or naïve
silliness. It is these men who throw to the winds their impotence and degradation, and then
boast about it. In our country there are many people with vicious passions, without principles
or morals, without God or faith. Here you can shake hands with the greatest heroes and the
worst scallywags.

     
      All of this has been our inheritance for many years, but especially in the last eleven because
the Cubans in this hour in Cuba can be divided into two factions: Those that are allied to the
party of indifference, and those who are allied to the party of resentment, sadistic cruelty and
cold hate. That is to say: the history which has run as an undercurrent beneath the official
stage during the last eleven years: The unwritten history, racked with shame and blood; the
story hidden by the hypocrisy of sumptuous celebrations. This is our inheritance in the last
eleven years: Hate, stories of blood, cruelty and resentment. These men to whom power has
passed (all of them, not just the presidents) have not contributed to the building of a nation,
nor have they formed a political conscience or remade the armature of the state. Rather, they
have quartered the country in two systems of hate, which is the only victorious inheritance of
the contenders. 

     
      And the saddest thing is that all of these men have constantly talked about the people,
but it’s been nothing but a sham. Beneath the self-enrichment of the great families or the
sweeping glories of the bosses we will find only a floor of tears and misery. Here are the
people, in this subfloor, anonymous and invisible to everyone’s eyes, outside the moral
horizon. Demagogues from every party have spoken of their sovereignty, but later left
them incapacitated to make and mold and direct their own fortunes. They have mobilized
them for electoral or civil wars, but afterwards abandoned them to the margins of history;
isolated them in a country which is not present to their needs, problems, and daily drama,
or in their wishes to attain the status of a triumphant nation.

     
      And who are the guilty in this situation? First those who have been, or who still are
in positions of authority: The intellectuals, the military bosses, the social elite, all the
directing groups, without excluding the religious groups. All of them are responsible
for the mass degradation, for this renewed mutilation of patriotic anxiety. They are
guilty for their cowardice, for their egoisms and scanty morals, and for their deformed
notion of homeland. They are responsible because they have permitted – through the
silence of their lips and their indifferent gestures – the humble Cuban to be bereft of
country, to repeatedly deny him his rights, all hope of justice, all which could be
considered good, acceptable, and dignified in human life.

     
      But let’s not forget our own confession: at heart we are all responsible. Sometimes
because we have permitted the relaxation of authority, other times because we have
permitted abuses of authority. Sometimes because there has been such an excess of
empty words, other times because of the proliferation of such brute force. And everyone
is living – the complicit, the Christians, the indifferent, the monstrously apathetic –
on top of this adulterated inheritance. We are all cowards and this cowardice has dulled
even the most sensitive springs of the instinct. No one is moved now, not even by the
most terrible acts. We cry listening to a melodramas transmitted on the radio and when
we see painful scenes at the movies,  but we refuse to be moved by the tragedies that
are right beneath our feet and on top of our spirits. 

     
      Whosoever easily brushes off these words may describe the author as a mere instigator
to revolt, but he would be half wrong. In any case a revolutionary agitator is not the same.
If well understood, revolution is a return to justice and order. That was the meaning of
the revolution of the 10th of October; that’s what we want for this hour in Cuba. Revolution
demands moving forward, clear routes, solutions and long range plans. Nothing is further
from revolution than revolt, which only seeks vengeance, it’s a leap into nothingness.

     
      I speak of revolution that begins by changing man himself; that intends to transform
his mortar and reconstruct the walls of his dignity. For many years now – since 1933 –
our social life has been a revolutionary impulse, a force which surpasses “traditional order “;
Cuba is a country that seeks revolution. The same revolution – social, economical, and
political – that begun in 1933 should have has as an essential objective the return of
sovereignty to the people, and to construct a state that exists and functions for the people
according to the formula instituted by Lincoln. (23)

     
      Our entire story is an inconclusive revolution because the people – as inorganic sum
of working classes, manual laborers and intellectuals – has lacked its own instrument -
one adjusted to its needs and problems, of truly revolutionary struggle, that is: a truly creative
instrument. The people -  divided into a thousand irreconcilable wings - has only employed
its capacity for sacrifice, struggle, and its ethical idealism to destroy itself.

     
      Our sinful confession is made, and we sincerely repent the part we have all played in
this string of evils. One asks if there is any hope of salvation for this people. When hope
and faith are lost, everything is lost. I can’t forget it was Martí - who suffered the toothmarks
of slander and envy more than any other Cuban - the prophetic and encouraging voice for
times like these who said, “What I have to say, before my voice is snuffed out and my heart
ceases to beat in this world, is that my country possesses all the necessary virtues for the
conquest and maintenance of its liberty.” (24)

     
      All the necessary virtues! In truth, there’s no people in the world like ours, who has
inherited the greatest part of material blessings in the midst of the evil inherent in all
human condition. We will not receive pardon from God if with everything he has placed
within our reach – a fruitful earth, an ideal climate, and a strategic location -  and the
natural ability of Cubans – heroism, intelligence, progressiveness – if we are not disposed
to rise above this crisis and complete the efforts of the men of ’68 with a republic whose
core is “the entire nature of each of its sons, the habit to work with ones hands and to self
 reflect, upright self sacrifice, respect, and the cult of dignity present in every Cuban. (25)

     
      This 10th of October 1955, This hour of Cuba, should be that extolled by Martí, “The hour
of retelling the story, and of the united march.” (26)
     
     
           
     
      Footnotes:
     
1. October 10, 1868 was the date of the Shout from Yara (Grito de Yara) and marked the
beginning of the Ten Years War, the first War of Independence from Spain.
2. Referring to the election of Ramón Grau San Martin, 1944-48, whose administration
was at first marked by improvements in housing and medical assistance, but who later lost
popular support by accusations of corruption.  He was also author of: The Cuban Revolution
before America.
3. 1952, the coup de teat by Fulgencio Batista who became President and Commander in
Chief of the Army, and rescinded the 1940 democratically installed constitution to become
a puppet of US interests in Cuba. In these time the Cuban public experienced one of its
harshest dictators which gave rise to the Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro.
4. Cosme de la Torriente y Peraza (1872-1956) a distinguished Cuban politician and patriot;
founder of the Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York and during the republican period
acted as Secretary of State. He wrote Juan Gualberto Gómez, published in 1954.
5. Jorge Mañach: 1898-1961) essayist, orator, and newspaperman considered by some
literary critics as the most controversial intellectual figure of the republican period in
Cuba. See: The Nation and Historic Formation, an induction speech he gave at the
Academy of Cuban History, originally published by Minerva Editorial, Havana,
1944 in his work Essays, proplogue by Jorge Luis Arcos. Havana, Editorial of Cuban
Letters, 1999, p.91.
6. José Julián Pérez, 1853-1896,  Writer, poet, and independent Cuban fighter, Supreme
symbol of Cuban aspiration for independence and well known representative of Latin
American literature.
7. To gain insight into Martí´s thought in respect to the participation of upper social
classes in the organization and onset of the War of Independence, see different sections
of his Lecture in the Meeting of Cuban Emigrants in Steck Hall, New York, January 24, 1880,
in José Martí: Complete Works, Havana, Editorial of Social Sciences, 1975, chapter 4,
pp 183-211, and the article Cespedes and Agramonte, The Cuban Advisor, New York,
October 10, 1888, ibid, pp 358-362.
8. Francisco Vicente Aguilera y Tamayo (1821-1877) Independent Cuban fighter
considered the most prestigious of Eastern Cuba just before the onset of 1868. During
the war he was named military chief of the same region and Vice President of the republic.
9. Carlos Manuel Céspedes y del Castillo:  1819-1874, Iniciator of the First War of
Independence, General of the Liberating Army and President of the Republic in Arms.
Céspedes is considered the Father of the Homeland.
10. Francisco (Pancho) Maceo Osorio, 1828- 1973, Lawyer and conspirator. Iniciator
and promoter of a revolutionary movement in the eastern region of the country, with
views of overthrowing the Spanish government.
11. Pedro Figueredo Cisneros, 1819-1870, Major General of the Liberation Army and
author of La Bayamesa, trhe Cuban national hymn.
12. Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, 1828-1914, revolutionary fighter and second
President of the Cuban Republic, 1873-1878 during the Ten Years War.
13. Ignacio Aghramonte y Loynaz, 1841-1873, Major Geneeral of the Liberation Army, and chief

insurrectionist in the region of Camaguey.
14. Bartolomé Masó y Márquez, 1830-1907, Iniciator of the First War of Indepoendence,
1868. General of the Liberating Cubab Army and President of the Republic in Arms.
15. Rafael Simón Morales y Gonsález (Moralitos) 1845-1872, Fighter and patriot in the
independence fight. Known widely for his ibterest in public instruction, especially among
the Mambis where he set up literacy camps after 1871.
16. Manuel Sanguily Garritte, 1849-1925, Patriot, orator, and Cuban historial critic
who opposed the Spanish as well as North American colonization. He distinguished
himself as a fighter in the Ten Years War where he reached the grade of Coronel in the
Liberation Army. His his considerable bibliography one could mention the following titles:
Los Caribes de las Indias (1884), José de la Luz y Caballo, Estudio crítico (1890), Enrique
Pineyo (1927), and Por Cuba (1936).
17. José Martí, Carta al director de la nación, New York, December 15, 1886, chapter
15, p.158.
18. Kaj Munk, 1898-1944, Danish theatrical author and cleric, Executed by the Nazis
for his resistence.
19. Phraase cited by Pánfilio D. Comacho in his work Aguilera, el precursor sin Gloria,
Havana, publication of the Ministry of Education, Direction, and Culture, 1951, pp.19-20.
Library Bachiller y Morales.
20. Oscar de Céspedes, son of Manuel de Cèsèdes, At the end of 1870, having fallen
prisoner to the Spanish Army in Camaguey Manuel sent this response to the Spaniards.
21. Ñañiguismo or Abakúa, secret magic-religious society exclusively for men, iniciated in
Cuba by Nigerian slaves, found mostly in Havana and Matanzas Provinces. They became by
dint of their considerab le numbers of adepts a considerable labor force  during the republican
 period, 1902-1958.
22. Santería o Regla de Ocha: Afro-Cubano religious expression fused from the deities of
Yoruba cults and Roman Catholic saints.  Still in Cuba today one of the most popular and
widespread branches of African religion.
23. Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, Sisteenth President of the USA who gave the Gettysburg
Address in 1863, offering the most celebrated definition of democracy in the history of the US.
24. José Martí, Discurso en Hardman Hall, known as the La oración de Tampa y Cayo Hieso,
New York, February 17, 1892, p.293.
25. Discurso en el Liceo Cubano, Tampa, November 26, 1891, p.270ç. Here Cepeda fuses
two phrases from the same speech.
26. Nuestra América, El partido Liberal, Mexico, January 30, 1891, p.15