Rafael María Mendive Duany

Rafael María de Mendive is popularly acclaimed for his role as a bastion in the cultural and civic formation of José Martí. However, Mendive, by his own inspiration, secured his place in Cuban literature. His poetic work does not reach the depth of the great Cuban Romantics, but it was recognized internationally by contemporary publications. His poems appeared in several European journals and were included in anthologies of that era.

Son of Mariano Mendive and Dolores Daumy.

He studied Law and Philosophy, and obtained his degree in 1867; he traveled to Europe in 1844 and in 1848. In 1848 his first book of verses appeared, Pasionarias; he returned to Cuba in 1852 where he worked for ten years in the Sociedad de Crédito Territorial Cubano, until in 1863 he was removed from his position due to intrigues by integrist elements.

He founded some of the main Cuban journals of the era, among them the Revista de La Habana (1853-1857) and in 1856 he joined the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País.

As a poet, he belonged to the second Romantic generation of Cuba, which initiated a reaction of good taste against the decadence prevailing among members of the previous generation. The first two editions of his Poesías appeared in Madrid and Paris in 1860 and in 1864 he was appointed director of the Escuela Superior Municipal de varones, a designation that was opposed by followers of integrism, who distrusted him for being Cuban and a poet.

His merits as a teacher, however, earned him recognition from the Junta Superior de Instrucción Pública.

In 1865 José Martí became his student when he entered the Escuela Superior Municipal de Varones, Calle del Prado number 88, of which Mendive was director, and from then on he was Martí's spiritual father and contributed decisively to his ethical and patriotic formation. When Martí's father lost his income, Mendive committed to paying for his student's education up to the degree of bachiller.

On January 22, 1869, as a consequence of revolutionary demonstrations that occurred at the Teatro Villanueva, Mendive was imprisoned for his house being a center of patriotic meetings.

His Colegio San Pablo, founded in 1867, was closed, and the poet was sentenced to four years of confinement in Spain, from where he managed to quickly go to New York, the city where he resided from 1869 to 1878. There he collaborated in various Spanish-language publications and continued to encourage the separatist cause, for which his son Luis died.

Mendive returned to Cuba when the Paz del Zanjón was signed, where he directed the liberal newspaper Diario de Matanzas from December 1878 to March 1879. He continued writing for important international publications, and in 1883 the third edition of his Poesías appeared.

He was at the head of the colegio San Luis Gonzaga, of Cárdenas, and there he fell ill in 1886, so he was transferred to La Habana, where he died on November 24.

On December 20 of that same year a posthumous tribute was paid to him at the Teatro Tacón, in which some of the most distinguished figures of Cuban culture of that era participated.

The poetess Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda said about his manner of writing: "He is a most tender author, whose noble and passionate work is always transparent in his verses."

José Martí, his most devoted student, published a sketch of his teacher in El Porvenir, of New York, on July 1, 1891.
[...] Shall I portray him imprisoned, in a dungeon of the Castillo del Príncipe, served by his faithful Micaela, and his children, and his disciples; or in Santander, where the Spanish received him with palms and banquets?; or in New York, where he came escaped from Spain, to share the fate of Cubans, and celebrate in his winged and fervent verse the hero who fell on the battlefield and the good Spaniard who had not wished to rise up against the land that gave him bread, and to whom he gave children?; or in Nassau, dressed in white as in Cuba, in a bad mood and silent, until, at the voice of Víctor Hugo, he rose up, whip in hand, against "The Sleepers"?; or in Cuba, after the truce, when he answered an anxious disciple: "And do you think that if, for at least ten years, there were any hope, I would be here?" Why return to saying what everyone knows, nor think that the ten years have passed? I prefer to remember him, alone, in the long walks of the portico, when, the house silent, from the light of night and the rustling of leaves he fabricated his verse; or when, speaking of those who fell on the Cuban scaffold, he would rise angrily from his chair, and his beard would tremble.
José Martí, El Porvenir, New York, July 1, 1891.

Formal perfection and a sense of musicality characterize Mendive's lyrical work, sometimes more remembered for having been the teacher of José Martí than for his legitimate value as a poet. "La gota de rocío" is one of his most characteristic poems; "La oración de la tarde" is also very beautiful. Refined and full of nuances, he seems to be a transitional poet between the first and second Romantic generations; with him the most facile tendencies of Creolism are abandoned, without ceasing to reflect in his poetry a sensibility that is intimately Cuban.