On January 9th, 1915, Gonzalo de Quesada Aróstegui, the son of Camagüey parents, died in the city of Berlin. His remains remained there until August 29th, 1919. This Cuban patriot was born in Havana on December 15th, 1868 and at the age of nine his family moved to New York, where he met José Martí.
He participated in the founding of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC, by its acronym in Spanish) in Tampa and Key West. José Martí appointed him secretary of the Party Delegation and when the Fernandina Plan failed in January 1895, Martí entrusted him to tour the towns of Florida so that the revolutionary spirit of the Cuban emigrants would not decline.
He was the executor of Martí in relation to his literary work, since after his death he compiled the works written by the Master for various magazines and newspapers scattered throughout the continent.
Order of the volumes developed by Martí
Martí tells Gonzalo what he should do with his papers, with his works, his published articles, verses, also with his other belongings such as paintings. He thought at some point of death: … If I don’t come back, and you insist on putting my work together, organize the volumes as follows:
- North Americans
- North Americans
III. Hispanic Americans
- North American scenes
- Books about America
- Letters, Education and Painting.
And it could be another volume of verses: Ismaelillo, Simple Verses and the most careful or significant of some free Verses that Carmita has. [He refers to Carmen Miyares].
…
Do not publish any of my verses before Ismaelillo: none is worth a dime. [Total modesty of Martí].
About Cuba, what have I not written?: and not a page seems worthy of it: only what we are going to do seems worthy. [It refers to joining the battlefield].
Cuba would be volume IX: Two groups: Men and Speeches
So, Martí bets on a thematic organization, thinking about the possibility that it would also be salable for the Cuban cause. Five years after the death of the man, who organized the War of ’95, the first volume appeared. Quesada wrote:
On the fifth anniversary of his heroic consecration, these pages are published – as a guide for later and more lasting editions – as the cornerstone of the monument that has raised my admiration and gratitude to him.
Gonzalo de Quesada changes the order?
From 1900 to 1919 Gonzalo edited the first volumes of Works of Martí, except that he developed a different thematic hierarchy from the one thought by the Master.
The first volumes are dedicated to Cuba, not to North Americans, an option shaped by the context, I think. Cuba was in the midst of the North American intervention; consequently the choice of the Cuban theme from Marti visions is a behavior in tension with the hegemonic environment.
Gratitude
The work of Gonzalo de Quesada Aróstegui was a powerful endeavor in making known in the first years of the Republic the thought of one of the most illustrious of Cubans.
Starting from the scattered papers, the patriot clinging to a moral commitment mediated by love, whom he always considered his teacher, with total dedication compiled, united wills and resources in favor of making the Works of Martí visible.
Then other endeavors would come; Complete works by Nestor Carbonell, up to the current Complete Works, Critical Edition of the Centro de Estudios Martianos.
Without a doubt, Quesada’s greatest tribute was the rescue and compilation of José Martí’s documents. Fourteen volumes he saw with his own eyes and the fifteenth he left ready when death imprisoned him.
Bibliography:
Diccionario Enciclopédico de Historia Militar de Cuba. Primera parte. (1510-1898). Tomo 1. Biografías. (2014). Editorial Verde Olivo. La Habana, Cuba
Martí, José (2011) Obras Completas. Volumen 20 (21) Epistolario. Obras Completas. Ed. Centro de Estudios Martianos. Karisma Digital. Editorial de Ciencias Sociales. p. 478.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
