Manuel Pedro González: The Unsung Hero and Champion of José Martí Studies

This story began in a winery, in San Antonio de los Baños, Havana, during the 1910s. The young clerk was an immigrant from the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, born on November 26, 1893, in a picturesque town rural area named Breña Baja.

On the day of enlightenment, Manuel Pedro González Fernández was reading a book, perhaps hidden from his uncle, the owner of the store. It was a fictionalized biography of José Martí, written by the journalist and narrator Álvaro de la Iglesia. Until that moment, the life and work of the Apostle of Cuban independence was unknown to the nostalgic teenager.

“Reading that humble book (…) changed the course of my destiny, because it awakened in me the vocation for culture. With seventy-five pesos that I had managed to save, I decided to come to Havana to study. If I had not met Martí in time, it is likely that he would have continued working in the grocery business, I would have remained illiterate, I would have become a winemaker and perhaps I would have become rich. Manuel Pedro remembered in a speech he gave at the José Martí National Library, in 1968.

By his own decision, or perhaps by coincidence of fate, Manuel Pedro completed high school at the San Anacleto School, where Martí had studied; He then graduated from the University of Havana in Civil Law (1921) and Philosophy and Letters (1922), specialties also studied by the Master, in Spain.

Manuel Pedro González Fernández stood out as a writer, journalist, academic and editor with international significance. Photo: Taken from International Magazine of Mexico.

Man of the world

After teaching at San Anacleto School, where he taught Spanish Literature, he traveled to the United States and continued as a teacher at Goucher College, in Baltimore, Maryland, during the academic year 1923 to 1924. In this last year he was hired as a professor of Spanish American Language and Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. He would work there until his retirement in 1958.

Manuel Pedro founded the International Institute of Teachers of Ibero-American Literature in 1938, of which he was the first president; he created the Ibero-American Magazinewhich he co-edited from 1949 to 1953. In this publication, among other topics, he disseminated the work of contemporary Cuban authors.

Equipped with a great capacity for work and discipline, he published more than 20 books, pamphlets and dozens of articles and essays in specialized magazines in various countries. I have been able to find part of this academic and dissemination production in Athena, Spain, Ibero-American Magazine, Modern Hispanic Magazine, Hispanic Review, American Repertoire, American Notebooks, Books Abroad, Modern Languages Forum, Americas, Philosophy and Letters, Humanism, Cuban Magazine, Cuban Bimester MagazineJosé Martí Archive, The Nationthe literary supplements of News y The National; House of the Americas, New Journal of Philology Hispanic y Martian yearbookjust to mention some of the most significant.

He was well known by notable intellectuals and had a long friendship with some, among them Gabriela Mistral, Fernando Ortiz, José Antonio Ramos, Jorge Mañach, Juan Marinello, Roberto Fernández Retamar, Fina García Marruz, Cintio Vitier, Raúl Roa and Alfonso Reyes.

Manuel Pedro González traveled half the world; Sometimes he gave lectures, other times he researched, and sometimes he did it for the pleasure of knowing the nature and human beings of other nations. From those memorable trips he wrote reports, chronicles and opinion articles.

Martí presence in his work

He never forgot José Martí, present in talks, his correspondence, journalistic works and academic studies. As a result of the investigations he published the books The revaluation of Martí: notes on his bibliography (1936); Martí: Variations around the epistolography of José Martí (1948); Sources for the study of José Martí (1950); José Martí, Epic Chronicler of the United Status in the Eighties (1953); Initiation of Rubén Darío in the cult of Martí: Resonances of Martí’s prose in that of Darío (1953); José Martí, irreducible anticlerical (1954); Notes on modernism (1958); Martian investigations (1961); José Martí: ideological scheme(Co-authored with Ivan A. Schulman) (1961); José Martí on the eightieth modernist anniversary: ​​1882-1962 (1962); Martí, Darío and Modernism (with his disciple Ivan Schulman) (1969); Aphorisms and definitions or Martí’s synthetic capacity (1970) y Jose Marti. Epistolary (1973).

Back cover. Photo: Archive.

In 1950, the Directorate of Culture of the Ministry of Education, in Havana, published Sources for the study of José Martíconsidered by researcher Araceli García Carranza, along with Martí’s bibliography (1853-1955), by Fermin Peraza “(…) exceptional works that overshadow all previous efforts and constitute, even today, essential reference instruments for the study of the editorial movement on the life and work of José Martí in the period 1853-1955.”

The essay describes and systematizes hundreds of documents that he had consulted for more than two decades in public and private libraries in Cuba, Mexico and the United States. Although it was conceived for American students, it transcended that purpose. The list of essays and articles about the life and work of the most universal of Cubans, dispersed in magazines and newspapers, is still a pending task for historians. Until now there is only one approximation made by researcher Elsa Vega Jiménez in the book Manuel Pedro González, passionate follower of José Martí.

In the United States, Manuel Pedro González was the main disseminator of Martí’s work through his own studies, printing of texts, conferences at academic events and advice on graduate thesis. His most outstanding disciple turned out to be Dr. Ivan Schulman, author of numerous texts and considered an international authority on the life and work of José Martí. About our biographer Schulman considered:

“Preferences of perspective and methodology separated him from his university colleagues: first, his critical production revealed the constant and preeminent presence of the exploration of Martí’s work, and, second, in his publications, as well as in his university lectures, the ethics and the aesthetic perfection of Martí’s texts served as a model and a term of comparison even when it approached the exegesis of themes and texts of the 20th century. Martí, he said on more than one occasion, surpassed the other illustrious men of America, because in him the three highest categories of human existence were merged, those of the genius, the hero and the artist.”

The publication of the novel Lucia Jerez, written by Martí, which was printed in Spain by Editorial Gredos SA, in 1969, is due to the sponsorship of Manuel Pedro González, who not only financed the circulation but also wrote a 50-page introductory study. It was he who proposed, in 1960, the creation of the Martí Room, of the National Library of Cuba, an effort that was successful in 1968 and constituted the precedent of the Center for Martian Studies. He also suggested the publication of a periodical, Genesis of the Martian yearbook. AThe following year the Newsletterwith Manuel’s essay: Record of Martian themes that require clarification. In the text, for methodological purposes, and which is still useful, he predicted:

“Because José Martí is without a doubt the greatest prose writer and the most original and exemplary thinker that Latin America has produced. His multiple ideology is as current and valid today as it was eighty years ago, and will have guiding force for future generations. The ethical content of his work is ecumenical and we can predict that he will not age, whatever path humanity prefers to follow—whether Marxist, democratic-capitalist or moderate socialist. Martí’s morality is of universal application and meaning because he is free from limiting dogmatism and religious, racial or class prejudices.

José Martí Foundation

In 1969 he had created the José Martí Foundation in the United States. He served as president and was supported by an executive committee formed by academics Juan José Arrom, Donald F. Fogelquist, Allen W. Phillips and Ivan A. Schulman. He made enormous efforts to ensure that the Cuban State preserved the Apóstol stationery, treasured by Gonzalo de Quesada Miranda. Thanks to the kindness of the University of California Library, Department of Special Collections, I was able to access a letter that Manuel Pedro wrote to Fidel Castro, on June 25, 1969, where he expressed:

“I have lived in the United States for forty-seven years and I have read, meditated and studied Martí for more than forty. From my professorship at the University of California in Los Angeles have come the two most eminent doctoral theses on Martí that have been written in any language or country. I have published seven books about Martí in English and Spanish, and now, already retired, and about to turn 76, I have dedicated all my accumulated savings during 15 years to creating this José Martí Foundation whose goal and purpose is to promote interest in Martí and stimulate its study through annual cash prizes for the highest caliber doctoral theses written about it and independent works of great significance.”

Already in the twilight of his fruitful existence, Manuel Pedro contributed to the organization of the International Colloquium on Martí, held at the University of Bordeaux, in May 1972, financed in part with his resources. The Foundation also coordinated another event dedicated to the study of Martí’s work in Puerto Rico.

The Foundation did not escape the onslaught of the Cold War. She was unjustly accused of engaging in ideological diversion by Cuban authorities. He received, as he said Ivan A. Schulman in the article “Chronicle of a reluctant presence: Martí in the United States”, published by the Marti Studies Center Yearbookin 1997: “Stab wounds, difficult to forget, those that depressed and outraged him until the moment of his death in 1974.”

Manuel Pedro González at an academic event held at the José Martí National Library in Havana, the date is unknown. Photo: Courtesy of the BNJM.

Over time, although there is still much to recognize and disseminate his value, the contributions of Manuel Pedro González Fernández have been valued. On December 10, 2004, the Center for Martian Studies held a tribute to highlight his work, along with that of Professor José Olivio Jiménez.

On his native island of La Palma, writers’ events have been organized under the name of Manuel Pedro González, thanks to the initiative of the Cuban poet Juan Calero, who lives there. At these meetings, 3 books were presented about the illustrious Cuban-Canary Islander, who was, as the academic Alfredo A Roggiano said, “(…) a sincere man, in whom the palm also flourished”.

Fuentes:

Martian yearbook

José Martí Archive

Athena

Bulletin of the Cuban Academy of Language

House of the Americas

American Notebooks

The National

Philosophy and Letters

Spain

Humanism

News

New Magazine of Hispanic Philology

American Repertoire

Cuban Bimester Magazine

Cuban Magazine,

Magazine of the José Martí National Library

Modern Hispanic Magazine

Ibero-American Magazine

Araceli García Carranza: “Critical account of Martí’s bibliography. On the 168th anniversary of José Martí” http://www.josemarti.cu/dossier/recuento-critico-de-la-bibliografia-martiana-en-el-168-aniversario-de-jose-marti/

Manuel Pedro González Archive in the Department of Special Collections, University of California, United States.