The courageous and true decision making of Central and South American revolutionaries

Bolivar Marti’


And so we come to the revolutionaries of South and Central America…The Socialists claims them. The Democracies claim them. One was a poet and one was a liberating general. They are two unifying personalities of the South and Central American countries. They are Simon Bolivar and Jose Marti. Simon Bolivar was originally from Venezuela but liberated New Granada (We now know this as Colombia). New Granada is where most people believed the mythical “El Dorado” could be found. From the writing assignment “Candide” you may remember that El Dorado was a city thought to be so endowed with gold that the mud in the streets was made of it. Simon Bolivar launched a courageous surprise attack on a Spanish garrison near Bogota in New Granada. With 2500 men he defeated a better equipped and prepared Spanish force in the crucial Battle of Boyacá on August 7, 1819. The bulk of the royalist army surrendered to Bolívar when the Spanish were divided in half at a strategic bridge. He is now known throughout the continent as “The liberator”. He attacked Spain at its heart by defeating Columbia that contained a mythical city of gold and the isthmus that separates the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Five countries followed suit like dominoes. They were Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and we will count Panama even though it was not a country yet. He also strongly influenced Chile and Argentina’s independence.

The Cuban poet and revolutionary Jose Marti came much later January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895). His ideas have been adopted by Spanish speaking residents south of Texas. His ideas are so popular that any politician that wants credibility must quote him. Fidel Castro, the socialist dictator of modern Cuba, would require his students to read Marti in their history class. Perhaps if we read more about Marti The United States relationship with Cuba would be better. If Bolivar is the George Washington of South America then Marti is their Martin Luther King. If we were living in Cuba instead of the United States, then we would know his name as well as we know the name of Martin Luther King. Jose Marti's poetry is amazing. I often read his poetry when I am looking for focus in my life. Take for example this quote. How does it compare with the quotes of Martin Luther King?

“Anyone who offends the sacred freedom of our adversaries is reprehensible, and more so if he or she does it in the name of freedom.”
Jose Marti
“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. “
Martin Luther King Jr.
“There is no forgiveness for acts of hatred. Daggers thrust in the name of liberty are thrust into liberty's heart.”
Jose Marti

“In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. “
Martin Luther King Jr.

Recently my Wife Lynn and I had the privilege of spending an evening with some teachers from Mexico. One was native born and the other was a transplant from the Chicago area. It was around the 5th of May which is the famous Cinco de Mayo celebration. I asked the man, the transplant, what he felt Mexico’s greatest problems were. He went on to tell me about how the Mexican economy is tied to the American Economy. He also told me something unexpected. I asked him if the the Native American History is given honor in there history. He said they give lip service to it but they do not mean it. When I probed him further I was surprised by the next thing that he said. He said that they use every excuse for a holiday like Cinco de Mayo to control the people. The native born are especially susceptible to the intoxicating affects of alcohol. The rich and governing officials plan these celebrations and force all the people to contribute. They persuade them to participate by ostracizing them if they do not. They may even organize a boycott of their businesses afterward. The problem is that the people have no money to pay for the food, liquor and festivities involved. So the wealthy people loan the poor people money at exorbitant interest rates. Since the people can not pay the loans back they essentially become indentured servants to the people who have loaned the money. In this way the wealthy remain wealthy and limit opportunity to those who do not already have wealth. Bolivar and Marti would have both started a revolution over this practice.


Where are the Bolivars' and Martis' of today? Some Leaders like Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Hugo Chavez have thought that changing the system of government to a socialized one would correct these kinds of injustices. Unfortunately socialism has not solved the problems of poverty in Cuba or Venezuela. Perhaps the secrets of Marti and Bolivar were not in the system of government chosen. Perhaps the real revolution was in the hearts of the people. If the people internalize the courage of Bolivar and the truth of Marti, then they will make decisions based on virtue. This decision making strength of two incredible leaders has been celebrated for over 100 years. Decision making is a noun in the language of virtue. Wise decisions are made by balancing one virtue against another.

Taken from… http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.efemeridesvenezolanas.com/html/carta.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=5&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2BLa%2BCarta%2Bde%2BJamaica%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

THE LETTER OF JAMAICA
The 6 of September of 1815, in Kingston, where she was put in a home, Bolivar writes the famous Letter of Jamaica, directed to “a horseman of this Island”, that turned out to be, according to meticulous investigations, Henry Cullen.In this prophetic letter, Bolivar analyzes the situation of Venezuela and watches the future of all America with an amazing fidelity, product of their clear sociological concepts, reason why the first American sociologist of his time has been called “”
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ANTECEDENTS OF THE LETTER OF JAMAICA

It was necessary at those moments, to open perspective to the independence movement; to raise the spirit of vacillating and the pessimistic ones of the patriotic field, and at the same time, to neutralize in the possible foreign allies the effects of the realistic propaganda, to dissipate the bad ruling impression in the outside, to explain the justeza of the patriotic cause; the origin of the independence war; the contradictions between the social and political colonies and metropolis and favorable conditions that constituted the historical base of the independence movement.The Liberator, once again in exile, lived then the worse moments on his risky political life. Nevertheless, he lost neither the will continue fighting a little while, nor the security in the definitive triumph. From May he had arrived at Kingston, capital of the island of Jamaica, in where he actively dedicated himself to look for aid, mainly with the English government, continue fighting in Mainland. The Liberator was convinced of the necessity of the outer aid to reach independence. Just like they were it Miranda and Miguel Jose Sanz, the war could not get rid without arms, equipments, money to take care of the expenses of the conflict. And such elements it was necessary to look for them in the outside, because the conditions of economic delay in which was Venezuela, not even allowed to think about obtaining them within the country. In order to continue the war there was no another alternative that to resort to the aid of the foreign countries. The position of the Liberator in relation to this aspect appears clearly expressed in this paragraph of a letter hers written in Jamaica to Sir Ricardo Weliesley, stop civil employee of the English government:“If I had had left a single ray of hope over which America could prevail by itself, no would have sought more than I the honor to serve my country, without degrading it to the humiliation to ask for a strange protection. This is the cause of my separation of the Firm Coast. I come to try aid: I will go in his looks for that capital pride; if it were precise I will march until the pole, and if all are insensible to the voice of the humanity, I will have filled my to have, although uselessly and will return to die fighting in my mother country”.The aid that the Liberator looked for was arms, the ammunition and money to continue the war. In those same days Maxwell Hyslop had written to his friend, English retailer of Kingston exposing to him the necessities of the patriotic ones, which she considered thus: “… twenty or thirty thousand guns; a million pounds sterling; fifteen or twenty ships military; the military ammunition, some agents and volunteers whom they love to follow the flags American: there am whatever is needed here to give to the freedom in the middle of the world and to put the universe in balance”.“The Firm Coast would be saved with six or eight thousand guns, the corresponding ammunition and five hundred thousand duros to pay the first months of the campaign”.Finally, the idea of the Liberator in relation to this aid was that nonserious gratuitous and the nations that contributed to independence, would obtain, in return, the benefits of the commerce with the new countries, that during centuries had been monopoly of Spain.