When does a people express its desires more firmly than when it rises up in arms to obtain them?
Cuba proclaims its independence through the same right by which the Republic was proclaimed; how, then, can the Republic deny Cuba its right to be free, which is the same it claimed to become free itself? How can the Republic deny itself? How can it determine the fate of a people by imposing a way of life on it that does not include its complete, free and very evident will?
The President of the Republican Government has said that, if the Constituent Cortes did not vote for the Republic, the republicans would leave power, become the opposition again and respect the people’s will. How can the one who thus gives all-embracing power to the will of one people fail to hear and respect the will of another? Under the Republic, it is no longer a crime to be a Cuban — that tremendous original sin of my much-loved homeland, of which it bore only the baptism of degradation and infamy.
“Long live Spanish Cuba!” said the one who had to be President of the Assembly, and the Assembly said the same with him. Those who were carried to power by suffrage denied the right of suffrage as soon as they had ascended to power; those who, with Mr. Martos, said “No!” and abused reason, justice and gratitude. In the name of liberty, respect for the will of others, the sovereign will of the peoples, right, con science and the Republic: No! “Long live Spanish Cuba!” if that is what she wants, and “Long live free Cuba!” if such is her desire.
Cuba has decided on her emancipation; she has always wanted emancipation so she could rise as a Republic; she ventured to achieve her rights before Spain achieved her own; and she has sacrificed herself to gain her freedom. Will the Spanish Republic, then, be willing to use force to subdue those who are risking martyrdom to create a sister, Cuban Republic? Will the Republic be willing to rule her against her will?
People will say that, since Spain is giving Cuba the rights she requested, there is no longer any reason for her insurrection. I cannot think of that poor argument without bitterness, and I must truly blame those who provoke me for the harshness of my argument. Spain now wants to do good for Cuba. What right does Spain have to be beneficent after having been so cruel? And if it is to recover its honor, what right does it have to pay for that honor, which it did not gain in time, with another people’s freedom, granting benefits which that people did not request, for it had already won them? Why does it want them to be accepted now when it failed to grant them so many times? Why should the Cuban revolution agree to having Spain concede — as if they were within its competence to grant — the rights which cost Cuba so much blood and grief to defend? Spain is now atoning terribly for its colonial sins, which place it in such extremity that it no longer has any right to remedy them. The law of its errors condemns it to not appear kind. It would have the right to be kind if it had avoided that immense series of very great wrongs. It would have the right to be kind if it had even been humane in the continuation of that war that it has made barbarous and ungodly.
I am not referring now to the fact that Cuba has firmly resolved not to belong to Spain; I mean only that Cuba cannot belong to it any more. The chasm that divided Spain and Cuba has been filled, by Spain’s will, with corpses. Neither love nor harmony thrives on corpses; he who failed to pardon deserves no pardon. Cuba knows that the Republic is not clothed in death, but she cannot forget those many days of executions and of grief. Spain has come too late; the law of time condemns it.
The Republic knows that it is separated from the island by a broad space filled with the dead. The Republic hears, as I do, their terrifying voices. The Republic knows that to preserve Cuba new corpses must be heaped and much blood be spilled. It knows that to subjugate, subdue and do violence to the will of that people its own sons must die. Will it consent to have them die for what, if it were not the death of legality, would be the self-destruction of its honor? How ghastly if it consents! Wretched are those who dare to spill the blood of others who seek the same freedoms they themselves have sought. Wretched are those who thus abjure their right to happiness, honor and the esteem of humanity.
There is talk of the territory’s integrity. The Atlantic Ocean destroys that ridiculous argument. Enemy hands could show those who thus abuse the people’s patriotism, those who drag them down and deceive them, an English Rock; harsh hands could show them Florida; in judicious hands could show them vast Lusitania.
It is not the land that constitutes what is called the homeland’s integrity. A homeland is something more than oppression, something more than bits of land without freedom or life, something more than the right of possession by force. A homeland is a community of interests, the unity of traditions, a singleness of goals, the sweet and consoling fusion of love and hope.
Cubans do not live as Spaniards do; Cuban history is not that of Spaniards; what was imperishable glory for Spain, Spain itself has sought to be the deepest disgrace for Cubans. They thrive on different trade, have links with different countries and rejoice with different customs. They have no shared aspirations or identical goals, nor do they have cherished memories to unite them. The Cuban spirit thinks with bitterness of the grief the Spanish spirit has brought it; it struggles vigorously against Spanish domination. And then, since all the communities and all the identities that constitute the whole homeland are lacking, they invoke an illusion which will not serve; they invoke a deceitful lie when they invoke the integrity of the homeland. Peoples are joined only by bonds of fraternity and love.
Spain has never wanted to be Cuba’s sister; why should it pretend now that Cuba should be its sister? To secure Cuba to the Spanish Nation would be to exercise a right of conquest over her — more abusive and repugnant now than ever before. The Republic cannot exercise it without bringing the curses of the honored peoples upon its guilty head.
Many times, Cuba asked Spain for the rights which Spain now wants to grant it. Many times, Spain refused to grant those rights; how then, can it be surprised that Cuba refuses, in its turn, to accept as a tardy gift, an honor which it has purchased with the generous blood of its sons, an honor which it still seeks now with unbreakable determination and a firmness which no one should seek to destroy?
Because of different pressing needs, endowed with opposite characters, surrounded by different countries and deeply divided by past cruelties, without Cuba’s having any reason for loving Spain or any will to belong to it and in view of the grief that Spain has amassed over Cuba, is it not crazy to pretend that two peoples which are separated by character, customs, needs, traditions and lack of love should be joined as one simply because of their memories of bereavement and pain?
They say that Cuba’s separation would mean the crumbling of the homeland. It would be so if the homeland were equivalent to that selfish, sordid idea of domination and avarice. But even if it were, the retention of Cuba for Spain against its extremely explicit and powerful will — the will of a people that is struggling for its independence is always powerful — would mean the crumbling of the honor of the homeland they invoke. Imposition is the mark of tyrants. Oppression, that of the infamous. May the Spanish Republic never want to be tyrannical and cowardly. The good of the homeland, which is being achieved nobly after so many difficulties, should not be thus sacrificed. Honor won at such great cost should not be so stained.
Cuba’s unanimous, persistent struggle shows its firm determination to obtain its emancipation. The memories that link it to Spain are of bitterness and grief. It thinks that it has paid a high price for the sonorousness of the Spanish tongue, with the illustrious lives which Spain has caused to be lost. Does this new, regenerated Spain called the Spanish Republic wish to become involved in the disgrace of imposing oppression that is, above all, unfair, ungodly and irrational? This would be such a mistake that I hope it will never engage in anything so filled with misery.
The revolutionaries in Cuba declared its 400,000 Negro slaves free before Spain did any such thing. The government’s political prisons are filled with 10- and 11-year-old Negroes who have just been shipped in, venerable 80-year-olds and idiot Negroes of 100, and they are whipped through the
