A Posthumous History of José Martí: The Apostle and his Afterlife

Description

A Posthumous History of José Martí: The Apostle and His Afterlife focuses on Martí’s posthumous legacy and his lasting influence on succeeding generations of Cubans on the island and abroad. Over 120 years after his death on a Cuban battlefield in 1895, Martí studies have long been the contested property of opposing sides in an ongoing ideological battle. Both the Cuban nation-state, which claims Martí as a crucial inspiration for its Marxist revolutionary government, and diasporic communities in the US who honor Martí as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation-in-exile, insist on the centrality of his words and image for their respective visions of Cuban nationhood. The book also explores more recent scholarship that has reassessed Martí’s literary, cultural, and ideological value, allowing us to read him beyond the Havana-Miami axis toward engagement with a broader historical and geographical tableau. Martí has thus begun to outgrow his mutually-reinforcing cults in Cuba and the diaspora, to assume his true significance as a hemispheric and global writer and thinker. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: The Apostle and I Notes References First Encounters Notes References Chapter 1: The Making of The Apostle; or, The Martí Wars Notes References Cuba and the United States: An Apostolic View Chapter 2: The Repeating Idol: Martí and the Iconography of the Nation Notes References The Apostle and the Virgin? Notes References Chapter 3: Dressing for Success in Interdisciplinary Contexts; or, Martí and the Rediscovery of the New World Notes References An Open Letter to President Obama about José Martí (April 4, 2016) Notes References Chapter 4: Can The Apostle Speak? Possible Lessons for Latinx and Global South Studies Notes References What My Students Can Learn from José Martí Notes References Conclusion: The Apostle as Oracle Notes References Index