The Memorial a José Martí is Havana's tallest structure, and it is the largest monument dedicated to a writer on the world. The whole memorial is dedicated to the tireless fighter of all forms of injustice, to a man that didn't hesitate to give his life on the battlefield for Cuba’s fight for independence from Spain in the late 1800s.

HISTORY

In 1933 the provisional government, headed by Dr. Carlos Mendieta, issued a decree to erect a monument in the city dedicated to the memory of José Martí. A commission was created that would decide about the place of the monument and to organize a contest to choose the best project. The contest rules were declared by the Academia Nacional de Artes y Letras (National Academy of Arts and Letters) in 1935.

In 1937 the President Federico Laredo Brú issued a presidential decree, according which a National Commission for the Monument of José Martí was created, headed by the Secretary of Defense Rafael Montalvo, and made a call to the public employees and the members of the armed forces to offer one day of their salaries for the achievement of the project.

Initially, there was a great difference in the opinions about the place where the monument would be erected. Some advocated the Plaza de la Fraternedidad, whereas others pointed at the Parque Central, where a statue of José Martí was already present since 2005. Colonel Fulgencio Batista proposed an existing square at the intersection of the G street (Avenida de los Presidentes) and the Malecón. It was the prestigious historian Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring (1989-1964) that insisted on the Plaza Cívica,  on the Loma de los Catalanes (Hill of the Catalans), a place that was already conceived as the future geographical center by the French landscape architect Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier (1861-1930) that carried out many urban works in Cuba like Parque de la Fraternidad, Plaza de la Catedral, Paseo de Martí, El Capitolio etc. during his visits to Cuba from 1925 to 1939. Loma de los Catalanes had the strategic advantage of being located between the main urbanizations of the time like Vedado, Cerro, Marianao and Centro Habana. Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring was of the opinion that the structure should have a monumental type with the surrounding square, the Plaza Cívica, more than a statue alone. In 1937 the commission decided to build the monument on the Plaza Cívica, as it was a place that met the conditions at the best.

The rules of the contest were published in the daily press and in an official report of the commission, written in several languages. The first Pan-American competition for the monument’s design was held in 1938; however, it had to be repeated three times more until the last one in 1943, as none of the projects was good enough to award the prize. On the other hand, every contest gave the opportunity to enhance the project, because initially nobody had a clear opinion about the magnitude and type of the monument. In some projects the monument was designed as a temple, in  some as a vertical statue, in the others as a sculptural set. After the fourth and final contest in that only the previously selected projects were accepted, the commission declared the project of the architect Aquiles Maza and the sculptor Juan José Sicre with the title Templo Martiano (or Templo de Americas) as the first prize. It was also decided to propose to the project winners to discuss on the change of the sculpture in the project with the sculpture designed by Esteban Betancourt before.

The second prize was awarded to the project of the architect and engineer Evelio Govantes Fuertes and the architect and sculptor Félix Cabarrocas Ayala in that a monumental library was conceived. This library stands on one side of the Plaza de la Revolución with the name Biblioteca Nacional José Martí (National Library José Martí) today.

The third prize has gone to the project, created by a group of architects, including Raoul Otero de Galarraga, Enrique Luis Varela and Professor Jean Labatut. In this project the construction was designed in the form of a five-pointed star as the symbol of freedom and independence.

Even though, the project was ready, and the necessary fund was raised, nothing was done concerning the construction of the monument from 1943 to 1952, a period that coincide with the first presidential term of Fulgencio Batista (1940-1944) and the successive President Ramôn Grau San Martín (1944-1948). The old hermitage, the Ermita de los Catalanes (or Ermita Monserrate, as the Catalans dedicated the hermitage to their patron Virgin of Monserrat), that occupied the area where the monument would be constructed, had to be demolished, but the the acquisition of the hermitage, built by the Catalan immigrants, raised many difficulties that delayed the demolition of the building. Thus, it was intended to change the project to build the National Hospital on the Plaza Cívica. Finally, in 1951, it could be demolished, so that the construction of the memorial could proceed. However, during the presidency of Carlos Prío Socarrás (1948-1952), the Comisión Central Pro Monumento a Martí was reorganized to summon a new contest with the proposal of a new place, even considering the file of the commission  inexistent.

When Fulgencio Batista took over the presidency after Carlos Prío Socarrás in 1952, he buckled down to the project of construction of a monument dedicated to the memory of José Martí, as he wanted to clean up his image by such projects that gain sympathy of every section of the society. He raised the taxes to use the additional charge on the project of the monument, ordered to print editions of stamps honoring José Martí that would be sold and issued a presidential decree, imposing the public workers to donate their one-day income to finance the project. At his behest, activities in schools were carried out to generate funds for the project.

The money that was necessary for the execution of the monument, amounted to about 137.000 dollars in 1952, when Batista became the President for the second time, and all the money was deposited in the Caja Postal de Ahorros (Postal Savings Bank). The public employees, private institutions and ordinary people were the financial contributors of the project, whereas, according to Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring that was the member of the commission (Comisión Central Pro Monumento a Martí), the congressmen did not contribute any amount, and only the owners of five of the sugar mills contributed. As the commission made a decision to spend the collected money only in instances that were intrinsically corresponding to the monument, the government had to pay about 83.000 dollars additionally for the costs of the contest, publicity, prizes and publication of books.

While everybody was expecting that the project of Aquiles Maza and Juan José Sicre would put into practice, Fulgencio Batista selected the project that had come third in the contest. This was not a big surprise, as Enrique Luis Varela was the Minister of Public Works and Batista’s personal friend, and Batista had assigned him as the coordinator of the Plaza Plaza Cívica.  Later, Enrique Luis Varela explained that some elements of the other two prize winner projects would take part in their project, like the José Martí statue of Sicre and Maza and the monumental library of Govantes and Cabarrocas.

The area destined for the square around the monument increased to more than twofold, but during the expropriation of the land to expand the square, carried out by the Ministry of Public Works, many inhabitants of the marginal neighborhood La Pelusa were threatened by the expropriation of their homes, if they would not pay money. The abuse was at such a degree that the young lawyer Fidel Castro assumed the defense of these oppressed people in 1951.

The change in the design of the monument generated great debate in the public that led to a last modification of the design, in that the position of the statue of José Martí that was atop the tower according the project of Sicre and Maza, was lowered and moved to the base of the monument.

The construction of the tower started on the 100th anniversary of José Martí's birth in 1953. The construction of the tower and the statue of José Martí were finished during the final days of Batista at the end of 1958, but some exterior detailing remained, so that the complex could not be completed before 1961. During the period when the museum inside was closed to the public, the marble platform in front of the tower was used for different activities, like large meetings. On the occasion of the centenary of the fall in combat of José Martí that had occurred in 1895, it was concluded to put the museum into service; thus, the museum was inaugurated in 1996.