Cuba unveils statue of national hero José Martí in Ho Chi Minh City

The ceremony was held at the consulate in Tan Dinh Wardto pay tribute to José Martí (full name José Julián Martí Pérez, 1853–95), a leader of Cuba’s struggle for independence from Spanish colonial rule and the first Cuban to write about Vietnam.

Speaking at the event, Cuban Consul General Ariadne Feo Labrada said Martí’s ideology, life, and legacy have consistently served as a powerful source of inspiration for the Cuban people, particularly during the country’s most challenging historical periods.

She described him as the founder of the Cuban Revolutionary Party in 1892 and the political leader who guided the late-19th-century independence struggle against Spain, laying the ideological groundwork for the Cuban revolution.

Labrada noted that Martí’s ideas on national independence and social justice later became the spiritual foundation of the Cuban revolution and strongly influenced Fidel Castro Ruz, one of Martí’s most prominent disciples and the leader of Cuba’s revolutionary movement.

She also highlighted Martí’s special connection with Vietnam, recalling that he was the first Cuban to introduce Vietnam to Cuban and Latin-American audiences through his 1889 essay ‘A Journey through the Land of the Annamese,’ published in the magazine La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age).

Through this work, Martí wrote about Vietnamese culture, creativity, and heroic history, from the uprising of the Trung Sisters, or Hai Ba Trung, in the first century to resistance against French colonial rule.

Vietnam, Labrada said, has long held a special place in Cuban hearts, adding that she firmly believes there is no friend more loyal and steadfast to Cuba than Vietnam.

She noted that the newly inaugurated bust bears one of Martí’s quotations, “Great things cannot be done without great friends.”

From José Martí, she said, people learn the enduring value and power of ideas, while from President Ho Chi Minh they learn courage, resilience, and the sacred importance of national independence.

The consul general added that the Cuban Consulate General will remain open to Vietnamese people wishing to visit, lay flowers, and pay tribute to Cuba’s national hero on commemorative occasions.

She expressed hope that the statue would help deepen public understanding of Cuba in Vietnam and further strengthen people-to-people ties.

José Martí is regarded as Cuba’s national hero and a symbol of the country’s struggle for independence from Spain.

He was killed in combat against Spanish colonial forces on May 19, 1895, during the Battle of Dos Rios in eastern Cuba.

Also speaking at the ceremony, Nguyen Manh Cuong, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City administration, emphasized that the inauguration of the statue carried profound humanistic significance and reflected the long-standing friendship between Vietnam and Cuba.

This is the first statue of a prominent Cuban figure erected in Ho Chi Minh City to honor the life and legacy of Jose Marti, Cuba’s national hero and a leading cultural figure, Cuong said.

He noted that although the two countries are separated by great geographical distance, the bond between the Vietnamese and Cuban peoples was forged at an early stage.

Cuong added that placing the statue in Ho Chi Minh City went beyond commemorating Martí as a towering intellectual and moral figure in Cuban history, instead underscoring Vietnam’s gratitude to an early envoy who helped lay the foundations of Vietnam-Cuba relations.