Villena: Neither forgotten nor dead (+Audio).
Among the most prominent figures of Cuban youth rebelliousness, it is impossible not to mention the outstanding revolutionary and intellectual Ruben Martinez Villena, who, despite his short-lived existence, bequeathed to Cuban history a fruitful political activism and an emotional and passionate literary work.
Born on December 20th, 1899 in Alquízar, from an early age he stood out for his academic prowess when he completed his Bachelor of Arts and Sciences studies and graduated from the University of Havana with a PhD in Civil and Public Law, subjects that endowed him with a heightened sense of justice, freedom and equality that Cuba, which the U.S. government had stolen its independence, so longed for.
The indelible mark he left in the so-called Protest of the Thirteen is still remembered as one of the most recognized passages of his political actions, since he demonstrated the strength of the intellectual youth by condemning, that March 18th, 1923, the corruption after the purchase of the Santa Clara Convent during the government of the then President Alfredo Zayas.
Likewise, he extrapolated his revolutionary courage, anti-imperialism and human sensitivity to the field of literature, giving to the future a vast journalistic and literary work in which stand out writings such as his poem Mensaje lírico civil, clear evidence of the growing conscience of struggle he was acquiring, as well as the articles he published in the press organs Venezuela Libre, El Trabajador and Bandera Roja, among others.
Likewise, he played an essential role in the founding of Julio Antonio Mella’s José Martí Popular University, which brought together the student and workers’ movements, whose insurgent struggle was crucial to undermine the cruelty and injustice of the regime during the 1920s and 1930s.
In addition, his active participation and membership in El Grupo Minorista, la Falange de Acción Cubana and the Veterans and Patriots Movement stand out, although he managed to further consolidate his patriotic-revolutionary vision by joining the Confederación Nacional Obrera de Cuba and the first Communist Party of Mella.
But Villena found in tuberculosis another of his most fervent enemies. Even so, being sick did not prevent him from organizing two important political strikes, one in 1930 and the other, three years later, which succeeded in overthrowing the tyrant Gerardo Machado, whom he had previously and rightly described as «an ass with claws».
Sadly, the ferocity of the disease made him perish on January 16, 1934, leaving behind him a prolific political work, a notorious literary imprint and, mainly, an inexhaustible fighting spirit to make the libertarian dream of his homeland come true.
…ONLINE AUDIO
Written by Yadiel Barbón Salgado.
