When Words Are Not Enough

doi:10.1017/9781009314008.013

Chapter 9 - When Words Are Not Enough

José Martí, Race, and Writing/Righting the Imagined Nation

from Part III - Transgressing

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2025

Dworkin y Méndez Kenya C.

Edited by

Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez and

Elisa Sampson Vera Tudela

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Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez: Affiliation:
Carnegie Mellon University
Elisa Sampson Vera Tudela: Affiliation:
King's College London

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Summary

José Julián Martí Pérez (1853-1895) seems to have known from a very young age that racial difference and discrimination in Cuba, and its use by Whites as a mechanism for social division, were the greatest obstacles to overcome in the island’s quest for independence from Spain – and especially for the creation of a modern, legally and socially egalitarian country. However, his writing has traditionally been classified as literature, even though that same corpus was meant to “do work in the world,” not just be archived, gather dust, or be dissected for its literary value. His writing was performative in that it was not just descriptive. He believed that language could change the world, not deterministically or relatively, but by resolving contradictions such as the dichotomies that separated people by origin, skin color, ethnicity, culture, nationality, religion, and language. Ultimately, it is the rhetorical Martí, the illocutionary and perlocutionary force of his written and spoken words, that needs to be further examined if we are to fully appreciate the transformative potential of many of his writing.

Keywords

José Martí Cuba-history Cuban independence Cuba and U.S.- racism Cuba and U.S.-race relations equality-Cuba journalism and literature interpretation and criticism

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Type: Chapter
Information: Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886 , pp. 209 - 230

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009314008.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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References

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