A proposito de commemorarse el pasado 19 de mayo un nuevo aniversario de la caída en combate de nuestro Héroe Nacional José Martí, publicamos un fragmento del libro
Galería Colombina , del cardenense Néstor Ponce de León, amigo queridísimo del Apóstol de Cuba. Este libro fue muy elogiado por Martí en el periódico
Patria y motivó una de las referencias a Cárdenas que aparece en las obras martianas. Acompaña el texto que ahora ofrece
El Cardenense a sus lectores, publicado originalmente, como todo el libro, en inglés, el grabado que apareció junto a la descripción de la estatua, primera de su tipo develada pública y solemnemente en America Latina.
The Columbus Gallery
The 'Discoverer of the New World' as represented in Portraits, Monuments, Statues, Medals and Paintings
Historical Description.
New York: N. Ponce de Leon, 1893.
THE CARDENAS STATUE.-In the Plaza. de Recreo in the city of Cárdenas, there is a bronze statue of Columbus which was erected on the 25th of December, 1862. (Cut No. 63.) The model was made in Madrid by the eminent [page 107] Valencian sculptor, Francisco Piquer, following the conception of Mr. Caveda, of the Academy of History. It was cast in bronze at Marseilles by Morell. The hero is represented attired in a very modest garb, lifting the veil that covers a part of the globe with the left hand, and pointing with the right, to the regions discovered by him. In the front face of the pedestal, there is a very beautiful bass-relief representing the triumph of Faith and Hell vanquished by the victory that Columbus obtained by his discovery. On the back of the pedestal, there is an inscription which runs as follows:
OCCIDUARUM REGIONUM INVENTOR GENUÆ DECORI MAXIMO HISPANIARUM ORNAMENTO E CUNCTO FERE LATO PATET TERRARUM ORBE INSOLENS PROPTER FACTUM DERISUM OLIM NUNC OMNIUM PLAUSUS, SANCTA CUM ADMIRATIONE EXTORQUENTI CHRISTOPHORUS COLUMBUS HOCCINI PIETATIS ERGO ET GRATI ANIMI INSIGNE MONUMENTUM SECUNDA ELIZABETHO REGNANTE OPPIDUM CARDENAS POSUIT ANNO MDCCCLXII.
The distinguished sculptor, Mr. Fernando Miranda, then a disciple of Piquer and now residing at New York, greatly helped him in modelling this beautiful work.
The statue in Mexico and that by Cordier in Paris, are almost exact copies of that by Piquer, in the city of Cárdenas, Cuba: the attitude in each being exactly alike, with the exception of the right arm, which in that by Piquer points to the newly discovered land, while in that of Cordier, it is raised in a triumphant manner.
