On May 19, 1895, José Martí fell in Dos Ríos . The man of flesh and blood died, the hero, but not his ideals, nor the struggle for sovereignty and independence that he so desired for Cuba.

His thought was immortalized in history in speeches and letters, which have been extensively studied and analyzed over the years, not only in our country, but in various parts of the world, for this reason, among others, that have earned him the title. from "the most universal of Cubans."

It is precisely his epistolary where the most diverse themes are combined that best show him, getting to know the man behind the Apostle.

His recipients were numerous, and his letters begin as a child to his mother and some of his sisters. The oldest surviving manuscript of Martí is a letter to Leonor Pérez . And a long list that includes Fermín Valdés Domínguez , Rafael María de Mendive , Máximo Gómez , Antonio Maceo , Julio Sanguily or Enrique Collazo .

The last of his letters, written at the Dos Ríos Camp one day before his death, was addressed to his Mexican friend, Manuel Mercado , and although incomplete, it is considered the political testament of its author.

Due to its importance and validity, today at Cubaliteraria we share it in its entirety:

Dos Rios Camp, May 18, 1895

Mister. Manuel Mercado.

My beloved brother: I can write now: I can tell you with what tenderness and gratitude and respect I love you, and that house that is mine, and my pride and obligation; I am already in danger every day of giving my life for my country, and for my duty - since I understand it and have the courage to do it - to prevent the United States and the United States from spreading through the Antilles in time with the independence of Cuba. fall, with that force more, on our lands of America. All I have done so far, and will do, is for that. In silence it has had to be, and indirectly, because there are things that to achieve them have to be hidden, and if they proclaim themselves for what they are, they would raise difficulties too strong to reach the end.

The same minor and public obligations of the peoples, - like yours, and mine, - more vitally interested in preventing Cuba from opening, through the annexation of the imperialists there and the Spaniards, the road, which has been of blinding, and with our blood we are blinding, of the annexation of the peoples of our America to the revolted and brutal North that despises them, - they would have prevented them from ostensibly adhering to and evident aid to this sacrifice, which is made in immediate good and of they. I lived in the monster, and I know its entrails; - and my sling is David's. Right now; A few days ago, at the foot of victory, with which the Cubans greeted our free departure from the mountains in which the six men of the expedition walked for fourteen days, the Herald correspondent ,what. He took me out of the hammock on my ranch, he tells me about the annexationist activity, less fearsome because of the little reality of the aspirants, of the curial species, without waistline or creation, who, as a comfortable disguise of his complacency or submission to Spain, asks him without faith the autonomy of Cuba, happy only that there is a master, Yankee or Spanish, who maintains, or believes, in reward of their office as Celestinians, the position of prominent men, disdainful of the thriving mass, - the mestizo mass , skillful and soulful, of the country, - the intelligent and creative mass of black and white. And the correspondent of the Herald speaks to me of more ; Eugenio Bryson: —of a Yankee union, - that it will not be, —with the guarantee of Customs, who are very committed to the rapacious Spanish banks so that those from the north can be held, - fortunately incapacitated, due to its entangled and complex political constitution, to undertake or support the idea as a work of the government. And Bryson spoke to me more, —although the certainty of the conversation I was referring to, can only be understood by those who know closely the vigor with which we have raised the revolution, - the disorder, reluctance and bad pay of the Spanish novice army, —and the inability of Spain to collect, in Cuba or abroad, the resources against the war q. In the previous time, he only took from Cuba: - Bryson told me about his conversation with Martínez Campos, at the end of which he gave him to understand that without a doubt, when the time came, Spain would prefer to understand with the United States than to surrender the Island to the Cubans: "And Bryson told me even more: about an acquaintance of ours, and what. in the North he is cared for, as a candidate for the United States, pª cdo. the current president disappears, to the presidency of Mexico. Over here, I do my duty. The war in Cuba, a reality superior to the vague and scattered wishes of the Cuban and Spanish annexationists to which only their alliance with the government of Spain would give relative power, has come at its time in America, to avoid, even against the frank use of all those forces, the annexation of Cuba to the United States, which will never accept it from a country at war, nor can they contract it, since the war will not accept annexation, the odious and absurd commitment to strike down on their own and with their weapons an American war of independence. —And Mexico — won't find a clever, effective and immediate way to help, on time, who defends him? Yes you will find it, —or I will. This is death or life, and there is no mistaking it. The discreet mode is the only thing to see. I would have already found and proposed it. But I must have more authority in myself, or to know who has it, before acting or advising. I have just arrived. It may still take two months, if it is to be real and stable, the constitution of our government, useful and simple. Our soul is one, and I know it, and the will of the country; pº these things are always the work of the relationship, timing and accommodations. With the representation I have, I don't want to do anything that seems like a capricious extension of it. I arrived, with General Máximo Gómez and four others, in a boat, in which I took the bow oar under the storm, to an unknown quarry on our beaches; I carried, fourteen days, on foot through thorns and heights, my backpack and my rifle, —We pick up people in our path; I feel in the benevolence of souls the root of this affection of mine for the pain of man and the justice of remedying it; the fields are ours without dispute, to such an extent that in a month I have only been able to hear one fire; and at the gates of the cities, either we win a victory, or we review, before enthusiasm similar to religious fire, three thousand weapons; We continue our way, to the center of the Island, to depose, before the revolution that I have raised, the authority that the emigration gave me, and it was respected inside, and an assembly of delegates of the people must renew, according to its new status. visible Cuban, of the revolutionaries in arms. The revolution wants full freedom in the army, without the obstacles q. before he was opposed by a Chamber without royal sanction, or the suspicion of a youth jealous of his republicanism, or jealousy, and fears of excessive future prominence, of a punctilious or far-sighted leader; but the revolution wants both succinct and respectable republican representation, —the same soul of humanity and decorum, full of the longing for individual dignity, in the representation of the republic, as the one that pushes and maintains the revolutionaries in the war. For me, I understand that a people cannot be led against the soul that moves it, or without it, and I know how hearts are lit, and how the fiery and satisfied state of hearts is taken advantage of for the incessant commotion and rush. . But in terms of forms, there are many ideas: and men's things, men are the ones who make them. He knows me. In myself, I will only defend what I have as a guarantee or service of the revolution. I know how to disappear. But my thought would not disappear nor would my darkness turn me sour. —And as soon as we have form, we will act, fulfill this to me, or to others.

And now, in the public interest, I will talk to you about myself, since only the emotion of this duty could raise from the desired death the man who, now that Nájera does not live where he is seen, knows him better, and caresses as a treasure in his heart is the friendship with which you make him proud. I know his scolding, quiet, after my trip. And so much q. we gave him, of all our soul, and he shut up! What a deception this is and what a callous soul his, that the tribute and the honor of our affection has not been able to make him write one more letter on the stationery and newspaper that he fills up every day! […].

There are affections of such delicate honesty ... [1] *

Notes:

[1] The text of the letter was taken from the Granma newspaper

* The arrival at the camp of General Bartolomé Masó , with his strength, made him interrupt this letter, which he could not finish later.