In "La Opinión Nacional" (The National Opinion), from Caracas, Venezuela, on January 25th 1882, José Martí stated:

"A strong body is like a reservoir of force in which the exhausted mind restores its energy. It is important to simultaneously cultivate the forces of the mind and the body".

For the Cuban patriot, exercise not only led to better physical fitness, but also improved other abilities such as intellectual and moral ones.

"… the mind has to be well nourished, but it is necessary to offer a good home for the mind through physical development. Like bamboo, more noisy than fruitful, which grows useless leaves that weigh its branches to the ground, the human being whose body is not sound lacks a solid mind. No palace can be built firmly on a foundation of sand".

The above quote comes from "Letters from Martí. Schoolchildren's Joys", published in "La Nación" (The Nation), the well-known Buenos Aires newspaper, on August 14th, 1883. Also from 1883, but in March, is "Gymnasium at Home", an article that appeared in "La América" (América), from New York, and refers to a facility set up at a house in Havana.

Gymnastics was practiced in the Ancient Olympic Games, in Greece, and sprung up again as Modern Gymnastics in Germany, at the end of the 18th century. A hundred years later, during the time of Martí, it was in vogue, leading to the foundation of the International Gymnastics Federation in 1891 and its inclusion as a men's sports event in the Olympic Games, with the horizontal and parallel bars, vaulting, pommel horse and rings, which are still in the Olympic program to this day.

Martí wrote about the benefits of a gymnasium in, quote "… mainly the cities of heavy and unwholesome air, excessive work and violent pleasure" (end of quote). This confirms his idea of the development of physical, intellectual and moral qualities through sports.

The importance of physical exercise for enhancing moral values is also evident in Jose Martí's comment that with children "it is necessary to strengthen the body in order to strengthen the spirit nowadays, as passions blossom early".

In another of his many articles about sports, the Cuban national hero again associated the body with soul and spirit: "It is necessary that the soul which is tormented or in permanent danger has a home of good basics and solid walls…" "During these times of spiritual anxiety, it is necessary to strengthen the body which has to keep it."

Martí referred to the different equipment of that gymnasium. Using one of them, "… all the beautiful and healthy exercises, which can be executed with paddles, are done", he stated, unveiling the aesthetic character of these activities.

Certainly, rowing is one of humanity's oldest physical activities, which became competitive beginning in 1715 in Great Britain. At the end of the 19th century, rowing would have a world body (the International Federation, founded in 1892) and entered the Olympic Games as a Sport in 1896.

Indeed, Gymnastics and Rowing are the first two references by Martí to sports activities as physical exercise.

In another of his quotes, the Cuban National Hero considered Gymnasium as "practical and artistic, which is another way of being useful". And he added "There is such a vehement desire of gracefulness and harmony in the individual, that one is injured and hurt when they are not present while one becomes happy and strong as one finds them", insinuating the benefits of art, which involves skill as well as discipline, and is intended for the amusement and aesthetic enjoyment of people.

In November 1883, "La América" published "Horse Exhibit", referred to a show taking place at the Madison Hippodrome which was visited by Jose Martí. In his text, he dealt with another value, setting an example, stressing the spiritual significance of following a leader. On that occasion, José Martí said: "… human nature needs spurs - even the Arab horse, when he sees another one running in the race, is more vigorous".

As far as it is known, the first horse exhibition took place in 1864. This was also the first reference found about horse jumping, too. Perhaps the rider's competition described by Martí in "La Nación" (The Nation), on December 15th, 1885, had to do with that equestrian discipline. The aesthetic value of Sports is again affirmed, this time explicitly using the word "beauty".

"… it did not seem a man astride an animal, but a daring creature of imagination, or a natural Lord on a living throne who gave to force a unique beauty with the splendor of grace; that is how the first Spaniards on horseback must have appeared to our humble Indians: huge and ironclad."

The description is so well written that it becomes understandable why the American Indians saw the Spaniards as gods. So as to get the idea across as well as to acquire that the equestrian activity be of indescribable beauty, an outstanding rider and an exceptional animal must come together in such a way that they seem a single and almost supernatural being.

José Martí was certainly an inspiration for the Cuban Revolution as a result of his political ideas, but the same can probably be said of ideas about sports, a field in which so much has also been done by Cuba.

José Martí used an America's Cup race between two yachts: the "Genesta" of England and the US's "Puritan" to emphasize that the two-yacht opposition above all represented a permanent and traditional rivalry between two countries:

"... The race itself offered something valuable, as something good is always offered -although it seemed puerile to those who investigate a bit more - by every act or event which concentrates the native country's idea".

International yacht racing was launched in 1851 when England's Royal Yacht Squadron staged a 60-mile regatta around the Isle of Wight and presented a trophy to the winner. Originally called the Hundred-Guinea Cup, the trophy was renamed "The America's Cup" after the victorious boat's owners donated the craft to the New York Yacht Club with instructions to defend the title whenever challenged.

This 1885 race honored the countries involved and the victory sparked even more patriotism, which is a value inherent to sports competitions provided that participants truly represent their native lands.

The America's Cup race still exists, although changes in regulations have occurred and other countries now participate.

José Martí also related sports to liberty. He made use of fencing for that purpose. Although there is evidence of swordsmen in Egypt, in the XIV century B.C., Marti focused on the foil, a modern weapon that appeared in 1896 in the First Modern Olympic Games.

In 1892, to unite Cubans behind a war of independence against Spanish colonialism, Martí founded in the United States, the Cuban Revolutionary Party. In the party's newspaper 'Patria', which means 'native land' in Spanish, he published the following piece in New York, on March 24th 1893:

"Tall, a firm gaze, flexible and light as the foil he wields, pale and courtly, tightly gripping and head held victoriously, Lorenzo García is a knight of liberty. Liberty made by slashes, like statues. Lorenzo García, the Cuban who wishes "to see his compatriots strong and virile", has opened a hall of weapons at 410 Fourth Avenue...Fencing enhances and orders human faculties".

So, in addition to the fencing-liberty metaphor, Cuba's National Hero stresses once more the role of sports in the development of human faculties.

But not everything that Martí wrote about sports speaks of its contribution to the development of human faculties and spiritual values, he also had some negative things to say:

In the newspaper, 'La Opinión Nacional' ('The National Opinion'), on March 22nd 1882, and in 'La Nación' ('The Nation'), on June 6th 1884, and on April 15th 1888, he wrote about inhumane walking races;

"Walkers in races offering prize money, demonstrate their repulsive feats, with their frozen faces and their bulging eyes, for the gratification of a sick public which is able to look indifferently at the athletes injured feet and souls. A hero is a rogue, and a walker is a hero".

Marti was referring to a marathon, six-day walking race in the Madison Horse Race Track in New York.

Concerning the walkers' coaches, Martí called them "cruel nurses" who "prepare nasty fortifying drinks" for the walkers and "... reanimate them by administering electric shocks or fisticuffs". And he added: "... this is not graceful Greek wrestling... nor are the prizes fragrant, green laurel crowns or sprigs of flowering myrtle ".

Thus, Cuba's National Hero criticized the debilitating walking races because they contained what he considered to be negative aspects of sports: the athletes and coaches who were willing to do anything for money, the degrading activity itself, and the insensitive spectators.

Martí also witnessed the beginnings of professional boxing and harshly criticized the sport.. On March 4th 1882, 'La Opinión Nacional' published a piece on the matter:

"The feather pen flies like a wing, when there are magnificent things to be told ,but moves slowly as it does now, when it must recount brutal things lacking in beauty or nobility".

The fragment refers to a famous boxing match near New Orleans between Sullivan, 'The Boston Kid', and Ryan, known as 'The Troyan Giant'. The boxers, he said, "who rush at each other like bulls...covered with blood .." and "...as they fall, they receive the sack of money they have just earned in the bout...and later "they exhibit themselves again in circuses and bars, and are treated well" by spectators who admire such men and enjoy their fights as though it were a "national holiday".

Mexico's 'El Partido Liberal' ('The Liberal Party') newspaper on July 13th 1886 published a boxing chronicle the talks about the famous boxer, Sullivan:

"In a hotel whose balconies open out onto the perfumed air of Central Park, he is, training for the huge match which will be held on July 4th, the holy day of national independence".

Meanwhile, from "In the United States: Boxing", which appeared in 'La Nación', on August 17th, 1889, are the following words:

"... There they go, with their shaved heads, with their cigars and their paper rings for all to see, as if to show off how great they are... With their Champaign and their fancy girlfriends, who also know what it means to connect a good right or how to get inside a cross-punch.".

As we have seen, Martí criticized professional boxing for its brutality, the monetary motivation of boxers, and the negative values permeating everyone involved in the matches: the press, promoters, spectators, and even the women who enjoyed these activities.

It should be stressed that Martí had nothing against learning the basics of defense and attack. What he criticized was emerging professionalism. A piece from "The Golden Age", appeared in New York in July 1889:

"Formerly, everything was done with the fists; now, there is more force in knowledge than in fisticuffs; although it is beneficial to learn self-defense because there are always brutal people in the world and because strength is healthy, and one must be ready for a fight, in case a thief wants to rob our people. For that, it is good to have a strong body".

Martí also criticized gambling in some of his writing.

Early on, the Cuban Revolution took steps to achieve what José Martí had dreamed of in the area of sports and one of the new governments' first actions in the early l960's was to ban professionalism and gambling and turn sports into a right to be enjoyed by all Cubans.

RHC