The health of our José Martí was ruined during a great part of his life. This is why he spent lot of time in bed. However, that situation never stopped him. His passion for his motherland was so strong that there was many times in which he did not look after his weak physical condition given he wanted to come true one of his biggest dreams: The freedom of Cuba.

It was already at his 17 years of age that the thick chain and the terrible shackle were part of his clothing in the political prison which caused him deep lesions in his right ankle and waist despite the cushions made with great dedication by his mother Mrs. Leonor and taken to him by his father Mr Mariano in order to decrease its constant rubbing with his skin.

Marti’s torment lasted around more than half a year there where he used to break stones in a quarry under an inclement sun, so, his physical condition deteriorated forever.

The health of our apostle was ruined when he left the prison and was deported to Spain in 1871, then his fraternal friend, Doctor Fermín Valdés Domínguez, who met Martí a year later in Madrid, wrote: “He left sick and poor the prison and I found him in Madrid… He had been operated twice due to a disease caused by a hit from a shackle during the daily grind in the quarry. He never healed from that disease that was for him a terrible one as a consequence of the surgeries carried out in bad conditions and wrong moments of his life that forced him many times to stay in bed as well as prevented him from walking.”

At the same time, Martí was also suffering from other serious diseases. It is thought that he was suffering from sarcoma that is a chronic and not common disease, which an unknown cause, that may affect many organs of the human body.

In a note written to his Mexican friend Enrique Estrázulas in 1888, José Martí described his health as that moment:

“I am not feeling tired let alone I complain about my health and in spite of the fact that I have an intense pain and a shrinking sensation in my heart. I never think of it and I do all I should and want without hopes and fears.”

In 1892, Martí said within another letter sent to a friend:

“Dead is really nothing in comparison to the way I am feeling, but I live for my land as well as to keeping my honesty and truth.”
His physical diseases never stopped his revolutionary work in favor of the Cuban independence. Once again, his beloved friend, Doctor Valdés Domínguez, felt surpised with his precarious health when he found him in New York and wrote:

“He had a wider forehead, however, he had no longer his former tangled hair and his body, which used to have an upright position, had a slight stoop due to his thinness and his muscles were flaccid ones. Marti’s was then suffering from an anemia caused by too much work given that he did not often remember let alone paid the necessary attention and worry for his diet due to his desire to serve to Cuba.”

At his arrival to Cuba, which happened through Playitas de Colorado coastal area, Martí experienced an unusual change in his mood and health given the fact he was breathing the air of his land once again and that had given him so much energies that eventually made him to feel almost completely healed from his ailments. Marti’s health was then better than ever.

Marti could comply that way with his duty in the Cuban jungle despite all its adversities as was later recalled by Máximo Gómez in his diary on April 14th, 1895:

“The path is difficult, we climb by long and steep mountains, and our walk is terribly tiring given the way we are all loaded. Old warriors like us, who are used to these hard conditions, have felt admiration for Marti’s physical resistance who has accompanied us without any kind of weakness through these steeps mountains.”

The satisfaction at being in the homeland complying with his duty made him not to suffer from any of his former ailments. Martí even looked after of rebels in the jungle. Besides, there was always iodine within his belongings which was used to heal the wounds of his comrades-in-arms.

In a letter sent to Carmen Miyares de Mantilla a few days before dying, he wrote:

“You all should know that I have just discovered new skills in me, so, every moment I write or leave the stool and the piece of bark on which I write is precisely to try to heal a wounded comrade-in-arms given that perhaps by the grace of mercy or chance I have more ointments in my baggage than clothes which are not for me as I have never ever been so healthy.”

Although he passed away prematurely, Martí always surprises us. Each period of his life constitutes an indispensable guide to understand the necessary ingredients for mankind which are greatness, love and patriotism. By Laura E. Pérez Ceruto