Cubanazo: José Martí and the Tropicalist Prose Style (Against Postmodernism)

Abstract

This article argues that José Martí’s brand of tropicalism (unrelated here to the Brazilian artistic movement) transcends the merely ornamental and activates in turn a ratifying device with respect to a deeper notion of Caribbeanness. The reading will contend that his discourse defies in retrospect a construct of the Caribbean fashioned after a postmodernist leveling that runs in tandem with a neoliberal model of globalization, and which he had already predicted and fought beforehand with astonishing accuracy.