Josè Martì and the Girl from Guatemala.

By Jorge Aliaga Cacho.

La Niña de Guatemala is a poem written by Josè Martì that refers to a real-life event  The verses register the tender and tragic love story that occurs between 1877 and 1878, during Martìs stay in Guatemala where  he was attracted by the charm of María García Granados. It has been written that 'the sense of honor and duty obliges Martì to leave her and go to Mexico to marry Carmen Zayas Bazán, his fiancee'.  In another poems entitled 'María', Martì expresses admiration for 'the physical beauty of Marìa and his intention to defend her from herself'.

María García Granados and Saborío or "La Niña de Guatemala" died in Guatemala on May 10, 1878. Marìa Garcìa belonged to a high social class.  She was the daughter of a general, former president of Guatemala, and was the great-niece of a famous poet and journalist of this country. When  Josè Martì arrived in Guatemala, he arrived at the house of General Miguel Garcìa Granados, Marìa's father.  In that house literary evenings were held. And there Martì fell in love with Marìa but he could not correspond to Marìa's love because he had been engaged to marry in Mexico. Marìa Garcìa upon hearing the news of Marti`s marriage takes her own life.  Well, this is what we had been told but the story could be different. Some people say that she threw herself off a balcony, others that she got the cold by going to swim in a river,  others say she went to a lake or even the sea.  The case is that Marìa had a respiratory disease before this tragedy happened and therefore she developed pneumonia and died. She was only 18 years old.  13 years later, in 1891, Josè Martì wrote for her the poem: "La Niña de Guatemala".  Marìa had written a note to Martì asking him to come to visit her, she accepted that Marti had always told her the truth about his plans of marriage in Mexico and Marìa accepted that he had to honour his word.  Martì received the note but never went to visit her again.  Marìa signed the note: 'Your girl'. Martì's poem suggests that Marìa died of love. However, a recent investigation confirms that Marìa died of tuberculosis and that she had a family history with that illness. During that time Alexander Dumas' novel: 'La Dame aux Camèlias' was very popular around the world. In the novel the fictional character  Marguerite Gautier dies of consumption, in other words, pulmonary tuberculosis.  This was a time when Dumas was in its climax of popularity and people ill with tuberculosis, like in his novel, was referred to as people ill by caused of love. The relationship between the great Cuban poet Josè Martí and María García Granados has been the subject of diverse opinions.  More recent declarations made by Marìa Garcìa Granado's family has suggested that the girl from Guatemala did not die of love. I would suggest that she died of both: love and tuberculosis.