14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, May 30, 2024 — How much can a piece of cardboard with the portrait that Andrés Estévez made of José Martí in Key West during Christmas 1891 cost in Havana? The answer comes from a man who walks along Obispo Boulevard, without people paying much attention to him, with filthy clothes, his keys tied with a cord around his waist, a cap and a bag made of jute.
The walking vendor sells one of the 42 known portraits of Martí. His face, captured after an event at the Cuban Patriots Organizing Committee in Key West, is neither heroic nor inspiring. He avoids the camera’s gaze and there is a certain skepticism in his eyes. 1891 is the year of Con todos y para el bien de todos y de Versos sencillos (With All and for the Good of All and Simple Verses). According to his biographers, that December he was very ill, and the photo is the best testimony.
