Celebrating a Cuban icon
published: Monday | February 3, 2003
By Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
ALTHOUGH HE was Cuban, and a proud one, José Marti, a Cuban national hero, would be pleased at the respect showed by Jamaicans to his legacy. The life of this legendary freedom fighter/poet/prose writer and artist, will be on display at the Institute of Jamaica on East Street, Kingston.
The exhibition was launched last Monday and it was clearly a big deal, judging from the number of diplomats, Cuban natives and institute staff who were in attendance. Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr. Barry Chevannes, emceed the short function, which saw State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Delano Franklyn, as guest speaker. But even his eloquent style was upstaged by Denham Town High's Milton Richards, who delivered one of Marti's poems, "Cuban Echoes".
Director of Museums at the Institute of Jamaica, Wayne Modest, said he hoped the exhibit would be the first in a series of bilateral co-operation between the countries.
Others who came to view the exhibit included Roy Augier, Professor in the Department of History at the University of the West Indies; executive director of the Institute of Jamaica, Vivian Crawford; Institute employees Keisha Williams, Cleon 'Ras Jaja' Golding, Tracy Commock, Deon Newell, Tony Taylor, Marlon White, Colin Neita, Grace Magnus and Sheena Johnson; Ainsley Henriques; Russian Ambassador, Edward Malayan; Nigerian High Commissioner, Florentina Ukonga; Dean of the Consular Corps, Arnold Foote; Ambassador of Chile, Fernando Pardo; Honduran Ambassador, Carlos Matute Rivera and PAHO Representative to Jamaica, Dr. Maunel Peña.
