Tribute to Leonor Pérez Cabrera

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 2007 · Authors: Thelva Marín Mederos

This bust on a pedestal is located on the Francisco Borges Salas promenade, within García Sanabria Park. It is a work by Thelva Marín Mederos in tribute to the mother of the Cuban politician, writer, journalist, philosopher and poet José Martí. The sculpture was made at the initiative of the Canary Association of Cuba and was placed in its current location in 2007.

Leonor Antonia de la Concepción Micaela Pérez Cabrera (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 17 December 1828 – Havana, 19 June 1907) learned to read and write self-taught from a young age, against the will of her parents who considered it inappropriate for a woman. At the end of 1843, her father, an artillery sergeant, was transferred to Havana, where the whole family settled. At one of the frequent dances attended by the daughters of the military, Leonor met the Valencian sergeant Mariano Martí, whom she married on 7 February 1852. The couple had eight children: José, Leonor, Mariana Matilde ( Ana ), María del Carmen ( La Valenciana ), María del Pilar, Rita Amelia, Antonia Bruna and Dolores Eustaquia ( Lolita ).

In 1857 the whole family moved to Spain, where they stayed until 1859, the year they returned to Cuba. In 1874 they settled in Mexico, where their son José Martí, who had been deported to Spain in 1871 due to his conspiratorial activities, joined them. After Cuba’s independence and as a tribute to the distinguished Cuban patriot, the Association of Ladies and Gentlemen for Martí was founded in 1900, with the aim of acquiring his birthplace, today the Museo Casa Natal (Birthplace Museum), located at present-day Leonor Pérez Street no. 314, in the heart of Old Havana. Leonor Pérez spent her last years in that residence, in the company of her daughter Amelia. The association of Canarian emigrants in Cuba, based in Havana, bears the name of this native of Santa Cruz, mother of one of the most important figures in Cuban history.

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