A Message to Garcia

The article, "A Message to Garcia," had such huge success after its
publication in 1899, that it was reproduced forty million times and
into all written languages. No small feat at the end of the XIX
Century. Notwithstanding its huge success, its message of individualism
is mostly frowned upon today and most Americans now alive are not
familiar with its contents; the article was not picked up by the
history text books in Cuba and therefore, it is little known amongst
Cubans also.

The author does not indicate the details of
his discussion with his son Bert about the real hero of the
Spanish-American war. I suspect it was about the American hero of that
war, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, or perhaps the Cuban hero in the
perception of the US media, Major General Calixto García Iñíguez. It is
fairly certain that it did not center on the supreme military commander
of the Cuban forces, Generalísimo Máximo Gómez, a Dominican Republic
national, nor the undisputed Cuban military hero, Major General Antonio
Maceo Grajales. Maceo was the greatest military hero of both the 10
Year War and the War of Independence. He rose through the ranks and
consistently outwitted the Spaniards, inflicting more casualties than
any other commander. His father and two brothers were killed in combat
in the 10 Year War; he was wounded several times himself, without a
doubt was the greatest hero of that war; yet in a summary at the end of
the 10 Year War in 1878, the New York Times did not even mention him.
Why was that? Probably because he was the son of a Venezuelan named
Marcos Maceo and a black Cuban woman, whose sacrifice embodies the
patriotism of all Cuban women, named Mariana Grajales. Antonio became a
popular name amongst black Americans after Antonio Maceo's death in
combat, on December 7, 1896.

Teddy Roosevelt was very
talented. Educated in the best New England schools, was an adventurer
and very courageous. He had been on an expedition on the Amazon River,
had been a US senator; had already been successful in many endeavors,
but had never been in the military. He wanted to add that dimension to
his experiences and background, because he had higher political
ambitions. Those ambitions were fulfilled later, when William McKinley
chose him as his running mate, on the wake of his success in Cuba.
Sadly, McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and Roosevelt thus became
President. I will say this for Theodore Roosevelt: he was a sincere and
dedicated man, who believed in all he did.

When the United
States thought that its opportunity to intervene in the Cuban
independence war was growing nearer, Theodore Roosevelt received
military training and was commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel, with the
specific purpose of earning his military fame and reputation in the
Cuban war. It seems almost as if the US Government guessed that the
incident of the USS Maine was forthcoming. I relate this incident
below.

At least six American presidents tried to negotiate
with Spain about Cuba. At least three times they seriously tried to buy
it. The United States wanted Cuba due to its geographic proximity, its
pro-slavery policy and for being one of the last two possessions of
Spain in America. Specifically the South, before the Civil War, wanted
Cuba to join the union; it would have been another pro-slavery state
that would have boosted their influence within the federal government.

Spain
never did sell. They also denied to those born in Cuba, the right to
the better positions and education. The discrimination and antagonism
between the "Penninsulars" and those of "Ultramar" (overseas) was
increasing. During the second half of the XIX Century, when there were
already telegraph and railroads, those problems were exacerbated even
more.

War broke out on October 10, 1868, with the "Grito de
Yara," which resulted in the "10 Year War" when Carlos Manuel de
Céspedes, a lawyer who had studied in Spain, freed his slaves in his
sugar mill "La Demajagua." Spain committed a large number of soldiers
and great amounts of resources to the war in Cuba. At the time the
monarchy in Spain was having problems, there were great scandals
concerning the queen, Isabel II and her consort, Francisco de Asis.
During the war in Cuba, Queen Isabel II was sent into exile and the
First Republic was established in Spain between 1873 and 1875. The hero
of the Ten Year War was Antonio Maceo y Grajales, a young mulatto who
join the independence war with his father Marcos and his brothers. Due
to his courage and military prowess, he rose to the rank of General
before the war ended in 1878 with the "Zanjón Pact." Maceo did not
agree with the pact and was the last commander to lay down his arms,
staging a last battle, known as the "Baragüá Protest."



Maceo
went into exile in Costa Rica, where a Spaniard tried to assassinate
him as he was leaving a cinema, in 1892. His assistant, General Enrique
Loynaz del Castillo, saved his life and killed his assailant. Many
patriots came into exile to the US and continued the struggle from
here. The US, citing the "Law of Neutrality" had foiled some efforts by
the patriots, including the expropriation of a ship loaded with weapons
in Fernandina Beach, Florida, destined for Cuba. It is ironic to point
out that a little later, gunrunners flourished in Florida, with
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (who had a county named after him) being the
most renowned. During these years, the first and foremost Cuban patriot
was a teacher, poet and thinker named Jose Martí Pérez. In early 1895,
José Martí, Antonio Maceo and Calixto García landed in Cuba. Martí died
in combat, only a short time later, May 19, 1895.

On February
15, 1898, and surrounded in mystery, an American battleship, the USS
Maine, which had been sent to Havana in January, under the command of
Captain Charles Sigsbee, blew up while anchored in the Havana Bay,
where it was "to protect American interests." The incident was both
suspicious and controversial. The fact that yachts belonging to William
Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York "Yellow Press"
were both anchored nearby added to the speculation.

A Naval
Board of Inquiry, led by W. T. Sampson reported on March 21 that the
vessel had been sunk by a submarine mine, but that it could not
determined the person responsible. A Spanish Naval Inquiry determined
that it had been the result of an accidental explosion of the forward
magazine. It is now generally believed that the cause of the explosion
was accidental, that the boiler blew up, but at the time, it was
attributed to the Spaniards. A total of 260 sailors died and it served
to move public opinion in favor of the war under the cry "Remember the
Maine." Thus, it acted as the principal cause for the US to enter into
the Cuban Independence War, later called the "Spanish-American War."
President McKinley went to Congress to ask for war powers; even though
he knew that the Regent Queen of Spain had already unilaterally ordered
a cease to the hostilities, on April 11, 1898. The US blockaded Cuban
ports on April 22nd. War was declared by Spain on April 24; on April
25, retroactively to April 21, the US declared war. We will never know
the absolute truth about the USS Maine, because the battleship, in a
very costly operation of setting dikes on both sides of it in Havana
Harbor, was repaired enough to float it; after it was raised from
Havana Harbor, it was towed out to sea and sunk in 1912.

Teddy
Roosevelt received much publicity for his role in the war, especially
for neither his march "Up San Juan Hill," when in reality his
contribution was not that great, nor that of the 15,000 volunteer
American foot soldiers. The entire campaign lasted only a couple of
months. Without the cooperation of the Cuban forces, Teddy Roosevelt
would have had a real hard time. What is self evident about the US
contribution is that of the Navy or the armada. The Cuban forces had no
navy at all, and it would have been very difficult for them, if not
impossible, to take and hold the large coastal cities. The US Navy
defeated completely the Spanish armada, commanded by Cervera, in a
battle off Santiago de Cuba.

The war ended in 1898, with the
"Treaty of Paris," between Spain and the US, without participation at
all by the Cubans, in spite of the long years and the 50,000 Cuban
casualties of the independence struggle. Spain had an estimated 200,000
casualties in Cuba. The US had very few casualties. Cuba became then a
US territory, officially from January 1st, 1899 until the republic was
established, albeit with the leg irons of the "Platt Amendment," on May
20, 1902.

Major General Calixto García Iñíguez was a lawyer,
had studied in the US and spoke English. He was without a doubt a great
hero, a brave and intelligent man. The US media regarded him as the
Cuban hero and maximum leader of the War of Independence, although he
commanded only the Eastern Army.

Perhaps due to the publicity,
without withholding deserved merits to a man who, as I previously
stated was brave, poised and intelligent, Teddy Roosevelt was widely
regarded as the hero of the Spanish-American war, the Cuban War of
Independence. I suspect that this might have been the subject of
discussion between Elbert Hubbard and his son and thus, what gave rise
to "A Message to Garcia."

Elbert Hubbard published "A Message
to Garcia" as a fill-in piece on February 22nd, 1899 in his magazine
"The Philistine," dedicated to individualism and self-reliance. Nobody
was more surprised than he when requests for reprints began to pour in,
shortly after its publication.

Next week, in the second of
this series of eight articles, we will publish the entire text of the
famous Elbert Hubbard article, "A Message to Garcia."