Return to Cuba 1895

January 12th 1895, the North American authorities stop the steamship Lagonda and two other suspicious ships, Amadis and Baracoa at the Fernandina port in Florida, confiscating weapons and ruining Plan de Fernandina (Fernandina Plan) January 29th, He draws up the order of the uprising, subscribing it with general Jose Maria Rodriguez and Enrique Collazo. They decide to move to Montecristi, to join Máximo Gómez and to plan out the start of the uprising. Martí had persuaded Gómez to lead an expedition to Cuba. The expedition finally took place on February 24. A month later, Martí and Gómez declared the Manifesto de Montecristi, an “exposition of the purposes and principles of the Cuban revolution”.

Before leaving for Cuba, Martí wrote his “literary will” on April 1, 1895, leaving his personal papers and manuscripts to Gonzalo de Quesada, with instructions for editing. Knowing that that majority of his writing in newspapers in Honduras, Uruguay, and Chile would dissapate, Martí instructed Quesada to arrange his papers in volumes. The volumes were to be arranged in the following way: volumes one and two, North Americas; volume three, Hispanic Americas; volume four, North American Scenes; volume five, Books about the Americas (this included both North and South America; volume six, Literature, education and painting. Another volume included his poetry.

The expedition composed of Marti, Gomez, Angel Guerra, Francisco Borreo, Cesar Salas and Marcos del Rosario, left Montecristi, Dominican Republic to Cuba on April 1, 1895. Although there were delays and desertion by some members, they evetually got to Cuba. They landed at Playitas, near Maisi Cape, Cuba, on April 11. Once there, they made contact with the Duban rebels, who were headed by the Maceo brothers, and started fighting against Spanish troops. By May 13, the expedition reaches Dos Rios. May 19, Gomez faces Ximenez de Sandoval’s troops and orders Marti to stay rearguard. Marti seperated from the bulk of the cuban force, enters the Spanish line.