The Spirit of Martí in the Land of Coaybay

[U]no de los dilemas irresolubles del futuro de Cuba es, precisamente, la extranjería de su pasado.

—Rafael Rojas, Tumbas sin sosiego

This article analyzes a shift in Republican-era Cuban literature from a preoccupation with romantic notions of sovereignty to concerns with neocolonial status and consumption, as read through representations of José Martí’s relics and spirit. Examining works by José Antonio Ramos, Bonifacio Byrne, and José Lezama Lima, among others, I argue that Martí’s ghostly return in post-1902 literature may be attributed to multiple, but related factors: (1) his prophetic measures were stymied in neocolonial Cuba; (2) the nation as such—even Martí’s re-imagination of it—remains haunted by what it excludes; and (3) Martí’s status as a specter, a material form of the immaterial, mirrors a Republican Cuba whose sovereignty and territory were eviscerated by foreign capital.