Dr. Pablo Aurelio de Valencia y Forns, a forensic doctor graduated in Spain, was chosen to examine the unarmed body of José Martí. Coincidentally, 23 years earlier, his father confronted the volunteer militias who went looking for the medical students, 8 of them outrageously shot on November 27th, 1871.
The ultimate game
In a place known as Dos Ríos, where the Cauto and the Contramaestre converge, on May 19th, 1895, Martí left us. A hard blow for the Revolution. Chaos and confusion captivated reality in the face of the impossibility of rescuing the body of the Apostle. The enemy recognized him and he is picked up and transferred to Remanganaguas.
On May 20th, 1895, the column of the Spanish colonel José Ximenez de Sandoval carries the body of El Maestro across the back of a horse, enters the village, throws it in the patio of the fort, 500 pesos are distributed among those of the troops, papers, Céspedes’s rosette ꟷsome sayꟷ the penknife, the belt, the corpse, the watch, the ring…everything was distributed. With the money the soldiers drank.
He is thrown into a shallow grave, pants only, no coffin, right into the muddy ground.
First forensic medical examination
Dr. Pablo Aureliano de Valencia y Forns, a graduate of Spain specializing in forensic practice, has the mission of examining the corpse after receiving notice from General Salcedo, head of the Santiago de Cuba military district. An order from Captain General Arsenio Martínez Campos to make an official identification of the remains.
At 5:30 pm on Thursday, May 23rd, Valencia began the forensic examination. After four days, within them 72 hours buried under mud. According to researcher Igor Guilarte Font, the exhumation was carried out on some boards in the air: the body was pale, chilling…in an advanced state of decomposition. The scene is pathetic. Hurts. The operation proceeds in the dark.
The doctor highlights the three gunshot wounds and notes several epidermal lacerations, evidence of the clumsiness with which the body was handled. The viscera and the heart remained in the open pit, to attenuate the decomposition process. That is why the residents of that small town transmit from generation to generation that the soul of the country beats there.
The identity of José Julián Martí Pérez is conclusive and he was prepared and preserved for his immediate transfer.
The forensic practice consisted of an imperfect embalming, and not a necropsy ꟷ pointed out Dr. Antonio Cobo Abreuꟷ “Technically, Dr. De Valencia performed cavity openings and evisceration, except for the cranial cavity, in order to prepare the corpse for its transfer to Santiago de Cuba. In the opinion issued, he does not refer to the study of the interior, nor to the trajectory of the shots, only of the exterior and other aspects of interest to specify his personal identity”.
300 injections of bichloride solution at one percent were administered in the soft tissues, the thorax was filled with disinfected cotton to suture it. Also cotton in the mouth. With a solution of alum and salicylic acid prepared with boiling water, it is applied as a varnish to the deceased.
Dr. De Valencia concluded at 7:00 pm by the light of dim candles. Then he is placed in the coffin. A crude coffin of cedar boards. Tied to a stretcher pulled by two horses and a battalion of 1,500 soldiers under the command of Manuel Michelena, he drives to Santiago de Cuba.
On May 27th, 1895, he was buried in niche 134 south gallery, in the Santa Efigenia cemetery. On his body was placed that of a Spanish soldier.
Before burying him, a second reconnaissance
On May 27th, minutes before the burial, doctor Joaquín Castillo Duany, who later became head of health for the Liberation Army, and Antonio Bravo Correoso, asked the Spanish authorities to allow them to identify Martí’s body. They agree.
Researcher Damodar Peña specifies that when the coffin is opened, Higinio Martínez is the one who takes the famous photograph and writes to Rodríguez Helio:
“Although the photograph is taken eight days after his death […] in the combat of Dos Ríos, despite the progress of a rapid decomposition due to the humidity of the ground, everyone has recognized the revolutionary Mr. Martí; for the features of his physiognomy could not at that time be erased by the hand of death. The spacious forehead that gave his face such a special seal, the curly hair, and other signs of the body, exactly match the portraits that everyone knows and the background provided by his relatives, for which the corpse has been duly identified.”
Beyond ’95
“Death is a victory, and when you have lived well, the coffin is a carriage of triumph.” JM
Bibliography
Guilarte, Igor (2021) “José Martí y las reliquias de la muerte.” Cubadebate http://www.cubadebate.cu Recuperado el 7 de mayo de 2022-
Peña, Damodar (2018) “La muerte y el arte. Cuatro visiones de la caída de José Martí en la pintura cubana”. Panorama, Cuba y salud, 13 (2) pp.105-110.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
