With the participation of Cuban intellectual and politician Armando Hart and the Havana City Historian Eusebio Leal Spengler, the presentation of a commemorative plaque to José Francisco Martí Zayas-Bazán (Ismaelillo), son of our national hero Jose Marti, was inaugurated at the Marti Studies Center (CEM), based in the Vedado neighborhood, Havana city.

Some 96 years after "El Ismaelillo" moved to the big mansion with his wife Maria Teresa Fernandez-Criado, their residence at that time, the plaque was unveiled by the outstanding figure of Eusebio Leal, who gave the opening address.

"The Ismaelillo decided to come to fight for Cuba's independence, at the age of just 15. His mother, Carmen Zayas-Bazán once wrote a letter to General Maximo Gomez, in which she reflected on the pain of a mother who had sent her son to e war. So, historians and Cubans in general must honor one who was able to join the troops of General Calixto Garcia and fought in the main battles in the eastern region of Cuba receiving the rank of Captain," said Dr.Leal.

The historian of Havana also explained how difficult it had been for José Francisco Martí Zayas-Bazán, having been called José Martí, like our national hero, since everybody expected the best from him and used to compare him to the figure of his father. "Many times, El Ismaelillo had been questioned for having a private life very different from his father," explained Leal.

It was on February 24, 1926, that José Francisco Martí Zayas-Bazán set up in that mansion and lived there until his death on October 22, 1945, while his wife Maria Teresa Fernandez-Criado lived there until October 10, 1980, when she passed away. She decided not to will her house to her heirs, but to give it to the Cuban Revolution to be used to support Marti's work and in order to honor Ismaelillo's memory.

Now it is the Marti Studies Center, an institution created in order to promote and encourage the study of the life, work and thoughts of José Martí. In this Center, a magazine by specialists and scholars of Jose Marti's work is published yearly. On this occasion, a selection of the most outstanding works presented at the International Colloquium, "Jose Marti, Unity and Revolution", was published.

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