Primary Source Intro
Maximo Gómez’s extensive military career informs his resigned tone in his 1899 letter “A Tutelage Imposed by Force of Circumstances.” An advocate for Cuban independence, Gómez spent his career as a military general whose controversial military choices involved torture of Spainards and Spanish sympathizers as well as the burning of fields owned by the Spanish. This knowledge establishes his frustration with colonization, which makes the moment in the Cuban revolution that he wrote this – with U.S. intervention a new concern – even more upsetting.
By 1899, the Cuban revolution’s admirable goals had been shaken by the intervention of the United States. While having relieved Spain of Cuba as a territory, the United States instead wanted to make the island an American territory. Gómez reluctantly acknowledges the role the U.S. wants to play in Cuba’s future and this letter reflects an internal struggle to admit that “none of us thought that this extraordinary event (the surrendering of Spanish forces to the United States) would be followed by a military occupation of the country by our allies, who treat us as a people incapable of acting for ourselves…” Spain’s defeat is a joyful event for Cubans who had been trying to get their own independence, but that same glee is immediately dashed by American imposition that too has preconceived notions of imperialism and colorism.
While Gómez admits that he is old, this piece is a sad reflection on Cuba’s lack of autonomy and independence despite having successfully evicted Spain. He ends the letter by saying “My last words for my soldiers are that, as always, where my tent is the Cubans have a friend.” One of the leaders of the Cuban revolution is settling with the recognition that Cuba will have to continue to fight for its autonomy against imperial nations who see its size alone as reason for conquest. What also makes this final line so influential is his age and dedication to that same plight for Cuban independence despite everything that has happened. Gómez never saw a free Cuba in his lifetime. The turn of the tide of the Cuban revolution to the Spanish-American War is in full display as he grapples with how Cuba has been a pawn for imperial powers over his lifetime.
Citation:
Gómez, Máximo. “A Tutelage Imposed by Force of Circumstance,” 1899. In American Empire at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: A Brief History with Documents, edited by Kristin L. Hoganson. Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2017.