Jos Mart and the Intersection of Empires and Economics

(Hardback)

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This volume looks beyond the myth of Jos Mart by critically exploring economic thoughts found in his writings; specifically, how they developed and how they were influenced by his position between a declining Spanish empire and a rising US empire. This book demonstrates how Mart is among the few who transcended regional and national borders, thus belonging to all of humanity.

Miguel A. De La Torre argues that Mart envisioned a way of being specifically a Cuban way of being beyond Spain and the United States. His writing was among the first in history to put into prose his dream of a postcolonial existence. More than simply an intellectual exercise; he was among that breed of scholar-activists who attempted to create, con un cuchillo en la boca, a postcolonial existence through a life-long dedication to praxis. He also was among the first to see and warn the Amricas of the growing and unquenchable covetous appetite of the United States.

This book argues that the major struggles and aspirations which the Amricas face today can be summarized as everything predicted and written by Mart, who gave voice to the dream of the disenfranchised. This was established by calling for the construction of a liberated society based on social economic justice, racial harmony, labor rights, and self-determination. De La Torre provides insight to Marts ethical way of being which facilitated tackling the wider political world from an unapologetic Cuban social location.

Author Bio

Miguel A. De La Torre, PhD, is associate professor of social ethics at Iliff School of Theology, Denver, CO. His published works include Introducing Latino/a Theologies and Santera: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America. A Fulbright scholar, he has taught in Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Columbia, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. Within his guild, the American Academy of Religion, he is the receipt of the 2020 Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2021 Martin Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award.