Juan
Gualberto Gómez:
He was one of the essentials, one of those who never tired of fighting, as Bertolt Brecht would have said had he known him. Neither Spanish jails nor the misleading friendly gestures of Alfredo Zayas, or the decorations from Gerardo Machado could tame Juan Gualberto Gómez (JGG). On May 10, 1929 the “Asno con garras” [Ass with claws –as Julio Antonio Mella nicknamed the dictator Gerardo Machado] orchestrated a huge farce at the National Theatre (today the García Lorca) on the pretext of decorating him with the National Order of Merit Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. With very little tact, the organizers of the event asked Pedro Betancourt and Domingo Méndez Capote to deliver the introductory words. Old Juan Gualberto, who was about to turn 75, smiled as they talked. Both men had been his opponents at the Constitutional Assembly of 1901, when JGG opposed the Platt Amendment and the two who praised him today had warmly defended it. Then, Machado spoke. Everyone expected his usual speech with neighborhood bully stance and fearful syntax. But this time he had studied the script: "Juan Gualberto belongs to no one; he may be affiliated with a political party, but he is for all of Cuba," he said in his most fortunate grammatical construction. At the end, the honoree took the floor. He began by saying that he had accepted the Order of Merit because those who had the authority to grant it "believed that I deserved it". He added: "My ideas tonight are no different from my ideas of yesterday, and General Machado has not believed for a single moment that I would change my mind, or vary my feelings." And the theater broke into a standing ovation when he said that the Juan Gualberto with the decoration remained the same as the Juan Gualberto without it. A SHORT BIOGRAPHY On July 12, 1854, at the Bellocino sugar mill in the province of Matanzas, he was born free to slave parents who had bought his freedom before his birth. He went to study in Paris, but ran out of money and had to devote himself to journalism among other trades. There he met Francisco Vicente Aguilera, who instilled a great love for Cuba in him. Back in Havana, in the late 1870s, he taught at the Antonio Medina School, collaborated regularly with newspaper La Discusión, owned by Adolfo Márquez Sterling. He also founded newspaper La Fraternidad, which he made into a weapon to combat racial discrimination. At the law firm of Nicolás Azcárate, he met José Martí. Along with Martí, he took part in conspiracies against Spanish colonialism. Both were deported from the island for their activities. He returned to the country in 1890. He resumed editing his old newspaper La Fraternidad through which he continued the struggle for equal rights for all Cubans. Under the disguise of an alleged "pacifism" he was also a speaker for the ideas of independence. He then founded La igualdad of less frequently, but a similar editorial policy. With the creation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party by José Martí, Juan Gualberto became in fact the Delegate in Cuba of Delegate Martí. At Martí’s, call he rose in Ibarra on February 24. He was captured by the colonialists and suffered a second exile. He did not return to the island until 1898. In 1901, at the Constitutional Assembly, he raised his voice to condemn the Platt Amendment. Along with Enrique José Varona and Manuel Sanguily, he became the conscience of the Cuban people both in the fight against US interference and denounciation of the corruption, vices and evils that existed in the neocolonial republic. At the end of his life, like Varona, he defied the dictatorship of Machado. And he died poor on March 5, 1933. *Translator’s Note: The Delegate refers to José Martí who was the delegate of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano to represent the PRC at the meetings and gatherings of all the insurgent leaders and forces fighting for independence from Spain.
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Juan Gualberto Gómez: |
ÓRGANO OFICIAL
DEL COMITÉ CENTRAL
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