Founding Spirit. Rafael Serra y Montalvo - Angelfire

13 Pages·2008·0.09 MB·English

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Founding Spirit.
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Rafael Serra y Montalvo
Miguel Cabrera Peña
Professor and Journalist
Cuban. Resident of Chile
R
afael Serra y Montalvo opposed If one looks back over a bibliography of
racial hegemony and represented race relations in Cuba, what one finds are
progressive thought in Cuba in his fragments of Serra’s work against racial dis-
time. He was also a tireless worker crimination, but they are just that—frag-
for independence. Very few deserved the com- ments that cannot spell out a coherent whole.
plete confidence that José Martí placed in Just consider what Deschamps and González
Serra. So why doesn’t Serra end up being Veranes wrote about him; and Ada Ferrer
more prominent in Cuban history? What is too, who calls him “a prominent black jour-
there left to say about this black autodidact, nalist,” and Aline Helg, who states that
essayist, twice elected senator and journalist Serra’s The New Creole “undermined the
from Havana who founded newspapers and dominant ideology of white supremacy and
concerned himself with raising his race’s questioned the myth of racial equality.”1
level of education? What remains to be said I will use this last criterion to demon-
after Deschamps Chapeaux’s prized biogra- strate if Helg is actually right. It will also
phy of him? serve to show if she is more than right in
What is left to say that distinguishes what she says—if that ends up being the
Serra is not his effort in planning the war to case. All this will allow us to see if Martí
free the Island from Spanish colonialism. It is exaggerated when in September 1890 he
also not his leadership in a black Cuban described Serra as a great and “founding
organization in New York, or his strict spirit.”2
actions once Cuba became a deficient repub-
lic. Let us just say—already—that what is The first twenty years
missing is an analysis of his deeply anti-racist
ideology. To my knowledge, no one has He was born José Rafael Simón Agapito
researched the actual limits of that ideology, in the Monserrate neighborhood of Havana,
what it meant with regard to the in 1858; history would come to know him as
Independent Party of Color—in summary, just Rafael. His surnames were Serra and
what plan he proposed in the face of Montalvo. In his biography, Deschamps
inevitable protest. recalls that during the future activist’s child-
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hood blacks were prohibited from studying earlier, in April of 1879, a young man who
history, sketching, grammar and geogra- had recently arrived from France had found-
phy—all subjects that were considered wise ed a newspaper in Havana. Its name was pre-
knowledge by Captain General Domingo cisely La Fraternidad and it fought for racial
Dulce. equality. That young man was Juan
Although he spent his childhood in a Gualberto Gómez.
poor neighborhood school, Serra had the Of course La Fraternidadwas not alone,
luck to be born to free parents.3Thus, if one since there was another newspaper, El
considers that in the 1860s slavery still sus- Ciudadano[The Citizen], which was trying to
tained the national plantocracy, even that lit- draw Cubans ofAfrican blood to the Spanish
tle school was a privilege for a black child. side. It might seem anecdotal that Martín
Unfortunately, his luck would not last long. Morúa Delgado, who was an up and coming
His father died when Serra was barely thir- intellectual, was one of the founders of the
teen years old. Harmony Society. He was one of ten such
His family must have had some connec- men and soon began to circulate El Pueblo, a
tions, because when he abandoned his studies much better defined newspaper, a weekly
to help support it he managed to find political publication that covered topics of
employment as a cigar factory apprentice— general interest, too. The El Pueblo’s logo
in a privileged working-class space that reproduced an idea that was prevalent among
favored education. It was not for naught that black intellectuals at that moment—‘there is
the upper class opposed the efforts of those no living without freedom.’Here ‘freedom’is
artisans to increase their knowledge, which synonymous with abolition and equality. In
they received via the soon-to-be famous cigar launching a criticism against the “enemies of
factory lector[reader]. our race,”what Morúa was saying [in his
Serra successfully took in the nation’s paper] was that the only thing African
reality, till the end of 1880s. On the one side descendants wanted and for which they con-
there was Spain and its allies, who were com- tinued “to beg”was “a brotherly embrace and
mitted to not abandoning the colony they a book.”4
had maximally exploited. On the other was It is hardly necessary to say that this was
the part of the population that left for the not the first time this black Cuban made a
countryside in 1868, rebelling against abu- reference to a need to emphasize and increase
sive political, economic and social practices. educational opportunities. In a hegemonical-
Slavery was the most obvious of these; it was ly Western society such as Cuba, there were
sustained with support from rich Creole many white ‘advisors,’sympathizers and anti-
sugar planters. The majority of the army racists who turned the subject into a long-
that would fight the Ten Years War was made lived discursive practice, if I may borrow a
up of mostly blacks—freemen and slaves. term from Foucault’s La arqueología del saber
It was racial harmony that Serra sought [The Archaeology of Knowledge]. The
when at twenty-one, while living in island’s republican State would take care of
Matanzas, he established the Harmony extending, deepening and rounding it out for
Society for Instruction and Leisure. It its institutionalization. From time immemo-
offered, among other activities, free classes to rial, it has been said that knowledge is power.
48 black and white children. A few months Yet, according to this rhetoric, the blame for
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black poverty did not fall on the republican Haiti, at the beginning of that century. It
regime that took slavery’s place but rather on was real fear and, as such, a pretext for a pro-
blacks, themselves, because of their lack of pagandistic move to divide the island’s
refinement. nationalism. Even if it was Spain that was
One cannot totally ignore the influence carrying out this campaign, rebellious whites
in this situation of the American South’s on multiple sides certainly supported and
Reconstruction, during which a significant fueled it.
number of African descendants learned to Many men had to go into exile and many
read and write. Both Martí and Serra came civilians were intensely persecuted during the
to know this period, the former makes it months of the Guerra Chiquita. José Martí
known in one of his publications.5 Radical and Juan Gualberto Gómez had to leave, one
whites contributed to this massive literacy shortly after the other. Martí went into exile;
campaign, which was a historic feat for the Gómez to prison. Serra, Morúa and other
black race. According to Berghe, Recons- black intellectuals were already conspiring,
truction was the closest thing to a social rev- in Matanzas, to mount a new struggle but
olution in the United States.6 Spain put an end to their work.
The foils to put them out of commission
Exile was to use a Colonel in the Fire Department
to recruit them, place them under his con-
Despite the fact that there seemed to be trol, and in that way destroy them. Morúa
a space opening up for a discussion of and Sierra both left for exile in the United
ideas—through the press—the capital soon States but would disagree about more than
put severe limitations on it, after a group of one national issue over time. Serra moved to
patriots, the black generals José Maceo, New York after having fleetingly belonged to
Guillermo Moncada, Cecilio González and a separatist club in Key West. There he
Quintín Bandera among them, reinitiated became part of a plan headed by Máximo
the hostilities that in history would come to Gómez and Antonio Maceo (1884). He was
be known as the Guerra Chiquita [the Small made Deputy Assistant to another black
War] (1879-1880), which lasted almost a Cuban, Brigadier General Agustín Cebreco.
year. The failure of that military action dispersed
Many white ex Mambi soldiers kept members of the San Jacinto expedition to
away from this new war, others leaned numerous corners of the continent. In just a
towards Autonomism. But, the immediately few months, Serra was back in New York.
positive response of high ranking black offi- Aside from conspiring, raise money for
cers [to the hostilities] fueled a renewal of the future 1895 war, and working as a cigar
the racist campaign that accused Antonio maker, Serra kept up his work of teaching
Maceo—who did not participate in this reading and writing to his black compatriots
insurrection, due to military jealousies and or, if they were already literate, improving
racial prejudices—of attempting to make their level of learning. It was often the case
himself the leader of a “Black Republic.”This that black Cubans who fought in the inde-
type of fear had already reared its ugly head pendence wars or lived during those times
in 1868, as a response to the anti-slave and went through an appreciably difficult period
anti-colonial revolution that concluded in of readjustment or correction, in order to
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build up their self-esteem, which had been It took years for an anti-racist struggle
battered by slavery. Because such a high to come about in two different places and at
number of them participated in the struggle, two distinct levels: one, among a number of
many of them felt quite proud (they saw those people who more publicly prepared for
themselves as Cuban gentlemen, citizens and war in the United States; the other, in Cuba,
thinkers).7All this must have exerted a posi- particularly among members of the
tive influence on Serra. A number of writers Directory. Notwithstanding, Martí, Maceo,
have alluded to this correction amongst the Serra and even Juan Gualberto Gómez knew
combatants, but no doubt those other black that planning for social battles with any real
Cubans who did not fight on the battlefield hope of success could only happen after the
also began to overcome a problem to which triumph of the revolution.
Albert Memmi and psychiatrist Franz Fanon The history of Cuba requires one to
dedicated many crucial pages—regarding reevaluate the anti-racism of the most pro-
the colonized. W.E.B. DuBois defined it as a gressive sectors of the Cuban nationalist
layer of sediment that made black people suf- movement of the late nineteenth century. The
fer a permanent distortion in their personal- focus should not be so much on what was
ities.8Martí indicated a need to “increase the actually achieved but rather on what was
level of pride that blacks felt”for those who criticized on the constant declarations con-
still suffered from said distortion.9 cerning racial equality that would have to be
put into practice, on the democracy that the
Against racist propaganda war would make possible. Yet, this is not just
about equality—the most important thing
If Spain and some of her followers were about this period was the realization of what
successful in convincing Cuban nationalism method should be used to implement these
that the anti-colonial struggle would bring social struggles.
about a race war, they could ensure control For example, anyone who reviews the
over Cuba. This was one of the reasons that work of Martí and Maceo, for example,
not just Martí but Maceo, Serra and others would be able to see that the latter was much
too, had to emphatically deny such a possibil- more moderate in his criticism of discrimina-
ity. Serra, the cigar maker, condemned “the tion, which means, of course, that he was
unfounded fears and even harmful precau- actually successful in voicing them. But,
tions that many harbor against future and Martí’s frequently lacerating opinions often
ethnic battles; against unnecessary and kept the issue at the forefront of the
impossible wars.”10 Independist cause. If a leader like Maceo
This rhetoric of fear also explains a fun- (who was black) had behaved thus, he would
damental reason for there being no calls to have been accused of being ambitious and
protest or vindicating actions between the wanting to put his race in power; if Martí
different independence wars. This does not did so, it was not possible for him to be
mean that Juan Gualberto Gómez and his attacked from the same angle. Martí’s anti-
General Directory of Societies of Color racist work garnered well-founded and great
totally abandoned the subject in Cuba. They admiration from Antonio Maceo.11
were, in fact, successful in making less formal Serra, who was aware of the friction
demands of Spain. and difficult link between the actual war
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effort and the demands for black rights, pub- his close and exemplary relationship with
lished his clearly Martí-inspired Ensayos Martí, and the thorough analysis and inter-
políticos[Political Essays]. pretation he carried of the entirety of
Martí, himself, reviews the book in one Martí’s work.13
of the articles in his paper Patria: “One must
truly feel love for those who suffer injustice; La Liga
and those who suffer injustice should love
their obligation to earn the consideration of There is hardly anything known about
others.” His lengthy quote from Serra’s the ties between Serra and Martí prior to the
Ensayos políticoscontinues: latter inviting the former to speak at a func-
“Though truths are often bitter, I tion commemorating another anniversary of
should use this opportunity to warn everyone the independence struggle, in October 1888.
that if Cubans—who might generally lack But it is in his general invitation to the
the logic, goodwill and capacity for virile Cuban community in New York where,
action—fight for a freedom that ‘is not with instead of explaining what will take place at
all or for the good of all,’we will fight once the meeting, he explains precisely the oppo-
and again, and we will die fighting….”12 site, what there will not be at the meeting:
These are Martí’s ideas too; Serra even “hateful divisions and punishable disdain”;
paraphrases him. They both take a lead in he also convinces Serra of a decisive goal—
combating the racism they know will contin- “we are preparing the elements of a society
ue to exist in the Republic. Just such a phrase that will atone.”14
from Serra, the kind Martí would have called This invitation was one of Martí’s most
‘virile,’would have been counterproductive if singularly anti-racist actions, something that
it came from Juan Gualberto Gómez in Cuba, Serra fully appreciated via all its conse-
or the Directory, which was the new war’s quences. The invitation served not only to
first theater of operations. Always fearful of visibly situate blacks at the heart of elite
corruption, Goméz did not write about what Cuban exile politics, but also in the context
would happen after a revolutionary victory. of a peaceful democracy, for when repara-
Cloaked in the respect they inspired, tions would be needed. In addition, Martí
Martí and Serra did what for other black also helped the voice of the subaltern—
leaders, with their status, roles and contexts, those who suffered discrimination—to be
was extremely difficult—they crossed the heard.
line more than once. They did this not just to Serra passionately took up two subjects
try to achieve the very necessary and essential at his public appearances—independence
union of all Independists but also because of and equality. Of course, Martí had also invit-
the relationship the hegemonic rhetoric had ed the celebrated (white) General Emilio
established between the independence strug- Núñez to speak against discrimination at the
gle and the alleged ambition of blacks to very same event, because many “consider
control the country. blacks to be little more than beasts,”he wrote
Let us focus, once again, on Martí, him. No one can doubt the connection
because it is impossible to understand Serra’s between Serra’s probable anti-racist leader-
activism and ideology regarding race rela- ship in the future democracy and Martí’s
tions in Cuba without taking into account decision to not authorize him to go to war in
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1895, when his friend was ready to take his publicist; his writing on the subject is pretty
place as a soldier for the Liberating Army.15 well known. In one of his pieces he states that
The friendship between the two men black workers pay for the school “by sacrific-
grew more intense after 1888. Martí not only ing their difficult salaries.”He doesn’t miss a
very directly praised Serra; he also made chance to take an anti-racist stab against
clear his intention to dedicate a book to him anyone who does not respect the efforts to
in the March 26, 1892 edition of Patria. For better themselves of:
his part, Serra felt compelled to offer state-
“...a few Cuban workers, black workers,
ments like “Martí is democracy”and con-
those men of ours who from their work
struct him as the “Apostle,”saying these two
tables are trying to earn their wild and inde-
things in a public defense of Martí.16
pendent bread, an Education, from Spencer,
The Society for the Protection of
or Iung’s Bonaparte, or The Life of
Instruction, La Liga [The League], was
Plutarch…, despite the fact that some useless
another of Serra’s commitments.17 La Liga
continued to operate, although differently people might find it amusing.”19
from La Armonía, the one major difference
The establishment of La Liga was not
being that Martí played a fundamental role
an isolated incident. Many others like it
in the former. Aside from procuring a great
cropped up throughout the United States
many of its teachers: he, himself, taught
and Cuba. According to Deschamps and
classes at the school, some of them free of
Horrego Estuch, the Directory, which main-
charge, after earning enough to support him-
tained close ties with Martí, took charge of
self by teaching other classes (scholars dis-
those in Cuba. The authors point to the one
agree as to what days of the week he did so).
in Key West too, the Gran Orden de
Like its predecessor, La Liga accepted poor
Misioneros No. 1 (The Grand Order of
white students.
Missionaries No. 1), which was of “a frater-
Martí would use his time at La Liga to
nal nature and was presided over by V. D.
talk about equality, race relations, and how
Juan Pascual.”21
important it was to not passively put up with
“haughtiness,”which is what he called a dis-
In the Republic
criminatory attitude. Naturally, La Liga also
became a breeding ground for anti-colonial To better understand Serra’s anti-racist
combatants. The freedom enjoyed by La ideology, one needs to get beyond many revo-
Liga’s students was obvious in the truly diffi- lutionary efforts and unexpected events, dis-
cult questions Serra and others asked Martí, agreements, failures, disappointments,
about things like the voyage of Anacarsis.18 Martí’s death in combat, three years of war,
Martí enjoyed the position and responsi- the U.S. intervention and finally the found-
bility of being La Liga’s Head Supervisor ing of a Republic that was born oppressed,
and Honorary President. It was while teach- and not only because of the imposition of
ing at this society that his lifelong title of the Platt Amendment. One of the most man-
“Maestro” [Teacher] came into use. Some ifest effects of this was the skilled way in
even say that he came up with the idea of cre- which prejudices were used.
ating the newspaper Patria while working On two occasions Serra wins elections to
there. He was also the institution’s greatest the Senate—in 1904 and 1908—via his mil-
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itancy in the so-called moderate National By this time, Martí was sowing ideas so
Party. But he had already criticized the that in the future men like Serra would
Annexationists and Autonomists. He adduces implement them: “I am fulfilling my role as a
that people who espouse this kind of ideolo- member of La Liga in way that is not yet
gy (the Autonomists were well known for the obvious, but will be later.”24 Serra was to
racism) were serving in high government become one of those men who would ‘make it
positions to the detriment of capable obvious later—in word and deed—by ful-
Independists. He also did not spare his filling his Martí-inspired debt.”Here we see
attacks on the courts, where just one, white more clearly one of the reasons why Martí
man, who was very often prejudiced, meted does not allow Serra to go off to war.
out justice in extremely brief proceedings
and allowed not one the right to appeal. To the United States in search
In his efforts to further defend Martí’s of experience
ideas, for which purpose he maintained a sec-
tion of his weekly El Nuevo Criollo[The New
Perhaps, we have seen and understood
Creole] named for him, and published La
enough from this background information to
Doctrina de Martí on the tenth anniversary of
begin to examine Serra’s anti-racist work in
his death, Serra intensified his attacks
texts like La república posible [The Possible
against the neglect inflicted upon the black
Republic], a posthumously published essay I
population. One must recall that even when
consider to be his wisest and most combative
most of Martí’s work remained unpublished,
analysis. Its tightly written twelve pages were
Serra became one of the political leader’s
published in October 1909, the same year
first and foremost interpreters. He really
Serra died. But, three years later, in 1912, an
took to heart the line in which Martí talks
event related to Serra will shake the island,
about those “who are about to die for the
even though he is no longer alive.
rights of men, be they black or white”; this
One author assures us that Serra
already resonated in Serra’s work.22
returned to the United States —no doubt
This is what made Serra feel certain that
briefly, since he was already a Repre-
the “project of atonement”would not just be
sentative— in the company of Evaristo
a bunch of useless words, because it was
Estenoz, “to visit with black organiza-
upheld by other attitudes and criteria. One
tions.”25 Estenoz, an ex Mambi lieutenant,
example of this is the letter that the author
would become the leader of the not yet estab-
of“Nuestra América”[Our America] (Martí)
lished Independent Party of Color. One of
wrote to his black friend, Juan Bonilla,
their journey’s objectives was to check out
another La Liga student. In it he says to him:
how African-Americans were developing
“these are just the preliminaries before a
their struggle for equality, something both
great campaign, a redeeming and active cam-
Martí and Serra had done earlier. In fact, one
paign, so much so that after it is over the evil
of Serra’s reasons for his anti-Annexationist
would dare not to be so bad. This is how I
stance was his belief that “annexation [to the
have dreamt it and that is how everyone will
United States] cannot be good for black
see us do it.”23The Republic, too, will serve
Cubans, because they already know that
this purpose, for a great anti-racist cam-
when most Americans think of ‘blacks,’jus-
paign.
tice, humanity and conscience cease to
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exist.”26 Notwithstanding, Serra also notes Principles”with DuBois. In it they do not
that although U.S. segregation is quite accept an inferior status or decrease their
harsh, blacks (in the U.S.) progress more emphasis on civil rights. According to Serra,
quickly than black Cubans. Once again, Trotter is considered a precursor of non-vio-
Serra was right.27 lent resistance.
Exiled in the United States, for more The Niagara Movement, established to
than two decades, he got to hear about demand complete freedom of speech, unre-
Frederick Douglass, the first nationally stricted voting privileges and the abolition of
known African American figure, someone any racially established distinctions, was
whose career Martí follows in his chronicles founded in 1905. It reemerged in 1909 as the
(he also follows other personalities, like abo- National Association for the Advancement of
litionist and minister Henry H. Gamet, upon Colored People (NAACP), a multi-dimen-
whose death in 1882 he devotes a praiseful sional organization that exists even now. It
poem). Surely all Cubans in the United States was built by a somewhat amorphous mix of
knew about the open solidarity expressed by radicals like DuBois and Trotter, left over
African American organizations and people abolitionists and liberal, philanthropic and
with Cuba’s independence cause, which due pro integration whites. Trotter would even-
to its connection with black nationalism tually separate himself from the NAACP on
could be the subject of another article.28 account of what he saw of white supremacy
Yet, even though Booker T. Washington and financing, creating a sort of rival organ-
was garnering much of African America ization—the National Equal Rights League
since prior to 1905, W.E.B. DuBois had (NERL), another instrumental institution
already written a strong criticism of until it ceased to exist.
Washington, in a chapter of his book The The twentieth century’s first years find
Souls of Black Folk, which Serra probably African American leaders searching for ways
read. Washington had offered the hegemonic to respond to racism. They try to get beyond
Southern whites to accept the lack of rights the sluggishness, a certain inertia that affect-
and “some measure of segregation” in ed the civil rights struggles of the late nine-
exchange for a promise to permit black par- teenth century. Meanwhile, groups in Cuba
ticipation in the economic growth Northern were working to create the organizations
investment would generate in the South. His that would later become part of the
great banner was the industrial education of Independent Party of Color (PIC) but even-
African Americans. It would serve us to recall tually fall victim to the cruelest continental
that during his declining years DuBois with- repressions carried out during peacetime.
drew his explosive anti-Washington criti-
cism. A major question
It was during this time that William
Monroe Trotter (1872-1934) –who with The question that remains after men-
George Forbes founded the relevant publica- tioning Serra and Estenoz’s trip to the
tion The Boston Guardian– was also active. United States is the following: with all his
It is noteworthy that this brilliant Harvard prestige, vast experience with anti-discrimi-
graduate, who ended up earning a Masters of natory newspaper battles and above all
Arts, signed the moving “Declaration of Martí’s obvious influence on him, would
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Serra have changed the PIC’s decision to pur- ceding to racism was the key to a forgiveness
sue what some scholars call an armed a that would not give up in its demand for jus-
protest, massacre or the little war of 1912 if tice.
he had been alive? To defend and love are two incitements
No doubt there were many points of he also ascribes to Serra. In the aforemen-
correspondence between Serra and the ex tioned article, Martí reveals that Serra deals
Mambi lieutenant. In his work, Serra notes with “the holiest of ires with a saintliness
the reappearance of the official newspaper of that makes them useful.”35Without meaning
the Independists, Previsión: “isolated sparks to be exhaustive here, I would like to make
are always a precursor to something great just minimal mention of the fact that as early
and concrete.”30 Serra makes other allusions as 1883 Martí, in countering Karl Marx’s
to the country’s situation just before he dies, call for class struggle, proposes instead “a
in October 1909, at the early age of fifty- gentle solution to the evil.”But he does not
one. suggest this approach as a meek one that has
It is precisely in La república posible, to be carried out timidly but rather as one in
which is a hommage to Martí, and where which non-violent solutions are taught.36
Serra publicizes a number of the most seri- Thus, because these teachings of Martí are
ous political, social, economic and racial ills from the nineteenth century, Serra was
of the moment, that he explains what he exposed to the notion of peaceful resistance
foresees for the civil struggles. He points to a prior to publishing La república posible.
central idea when he writes about “the just We will not go into current discussions
and decorous defensive campaign…blacks about the porous borders of the term ‘legali-
are carrying out—within the parameters of ty’—or other, perhaps more precise or paral-
justice and the law—not to change the laws lel words than ‘struggle’or ‘peaceful resist-
but rather how they are manifested.”31 It is ance.’Nor is there room here to hypothesize
difficult now not to attempt to theorize about how Martí came to this concept. A
peaceful resistance, an idea that, in fact, also comparison with Gandhi might do, because
came from Martí. of Martí’s complex religiosity and readings,
It would be a disservice to this topic to a number of them coinciding with those the
not bring to light at least of few of the Indian hero declared helped him in arriving
phrases in which Martí makes reference to at the method. In his work, Martí alludes on
how the black struggle for rights should be. more than one occasion to Henry David
About African Americans he writes that at a Thoreau, but it is not known if he read his
conference they advocated for carrying out famous Civil Disobedience.
protests everywhere, an observation that in On October 15, 1904, five years before
its ambiguity seems to suggest collective his death (one year before his trip to the
protest.32 U.S.), Serra writes something obviously
Of Serra he writes that he has “known inspired by Martí in El Nuevo Criollo, which
how to be pure, without giving up anything had declared itself in favor of mass educa-
or hating, despite the affronts of slavery.”33 tion, the creation of public positions for
Elsewhere, he indicates that Serra, “the slave blacks and against the Catholic church for
descendant that he is, assists in the creation not admitting blacks into their schools: “the
of free men, without ire or serenity.”34 Not battle for rights has begun,”and this “strug-
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gle”will be carried out in “an orderly and vis- vital to strenghthening the PIC, published an
ible manner,”which is preferable, he adds, to article under the title “Open Letter”saying:
becoming desperate or skeptical, which cre- “No one has given thought to initiating an
ates “dangerous rebelliousness or timidity.”It armed conflict because all men of color know
will be a peaceful struggle. In addition, this exactly what would happen…. That is why
is how Martí spelled it out in relation to our struggle is orderly and legal.”41
strikes and protests for workers’rights.38 It was this view of peaceful resistance
In La república posible, Serra points to that Serra proposed and obligatorily pre-
the “active popular sector”for the battle that sented to the Independents of Color, whose
has begun, to those who are lacking “the dis- first meetings took place in 1908. He had to
tinction of lineage.”These men already re-explain this orderly and legal struggle on
“understand each other and can agree.”39 In many occasions, with Estenoz and other
his heart, in 1904, this black Cuban was leaders. It was a way of negotiating and
already in tune with the heartbeat of the being able to agree. But it was also the path
masses before Mohandas Gandhi created this towards the reparation of which Martí
method that brought him so much fame. spoke.
Serra instills the future democratic republic’s Let us focus on the fact that the “Open
circumstances with Martí’s concepts. Letter”in Previsión said almost the same
He does not offer just one brilliant things we heard from Martí’s friend (Serra).
interpretation of Martí’s thought—which Serra spoke about an “orderly and visible”
precedes Gandhi’s; instead, at just the right struggle, “within the parameters of justice
moment, he offers a way to achieve black and the law,”and the newspaper character-
rights that comes to fruition with the move- ized the method as “orderly and legal”(it had
ment started by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., earlier been dismissed because it allowed the
who in 1959 traveled to India to appreciate Independents [of Color] to become a party,
the place and conditions under which and because of many other hegemonic pres-
Gandhi developed his struggle (not unlike sures and repressive measures).
Serra and Estenoz, who went to the United The Independent Party of Color was the
States). first black political party in this hemisphere,
but its most important theoretical
The connection antecedent was non-violent resistance, a
combination of Martí and Serra’s vision.
But, in practical terms and with regard Author Tomás Fernández Robaina purpose-
to their activism, what is the real connection fully focuses on Martí’s ‘presence’among the
between Serra’s projects and those of the Independents, who justified the creation of
Independent Party of Color? One article, the Party precisely because of the Republic’s
published in Previsión, seems to hold the failure with regard to Martí’s early vision of
answer, a reference to the prevailing idea of equality.42
its leaders at that time, who only in 1909, Serra makes direct reference to “danger-
once Serra was ill, agreed to an armed ous rebelliousness”to avoid what might come
protest.40This newspaper (edited by Evaristo later, a misconception that peaceful struggle
Estenoz, General Pedro Ivonet and journal- was the first step in an armed struggle—not
ist Gregorio Surín), which was considered an unusual thing to assume when it came to
30ISLAS