Do You Know Who This Man Is?

A fabulous prize will be awarded to the first commenter who answers the question correctly. Winner: Agustín Fariñas.

The man pictured on this photograph is Major General José Francisco Martí y Zayas-Bazán, only son of the Apostle José Martí. His father dedicated his first book of poetry Ismaelillo to him. Martí fils joined the rebel ranks after his father's death in 1895, having literally to escape his mother via New York to do so. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Tunas de Bayamo, taking charge of the cannon when the canoneer was killed. As a result of this experience he was practically deaf for the rest of his life. He finished the War of Independence with the rank of captain and continued to serve in the Constitutional Army, in time reaching the rank of major general. President Mario García Menocal appointed him Chief of the Army and Secretary of War. He married the only daughter of Cuba's richest banker, Maria Teresa Bancés y Fernández-Criado. The marriage was without issue. He died on October 22, 1945 and with him also the direct line of descent from José Martí.


Sidebar:

Because of his profound deafness, which became more acute in his latter years, General Martí often asked to have conversations repeated to him three or four times. This led many people to suppose unjustly that he did not inherit much of his father's intelligence. In fact, he became known as "the son of the statue in Central Park," as dead mentally as that block of marble. This was simply not true. His letters and a few published articles show that he was a man of great culture and possessed a brilliant prose style; nonetheless, he chose to excel his father at the only thing he was sure he could — as a general.