RESUMO
The author is interested in the light that an early experience, although dismissed by much of canonical interpretation, might shed on Martí, one that may be seen as developing parallel to his rising iconicity in Latin American history and literature. The exploration of this early experience provides an ideal tool to understand better and reinterpret ambiguities in Marti's oeuvre and actions. It showes how a disease, caused by the embryonic desire for liberation of his country, a physical, secreted, disjointed disease, haunts Marti's monolith. In order to do this it is fruitful to begin with the best-known and most oft-repeated facts from Mart's early life, with a look at the monumental figure from a distance. Sarcocele, Medicine has a detached way of naming things, even the most catastrophic ailments. On first glance, the name seems almost harmless, something like flu, or a toothache: a sarcocele. Yet, as I have pointed out, we are faced here with a deeper, more pervasive pain. The word 'sarcocele' is not a current medical term; it is defined today as a carcinogenic tumour in the testicles and can have many variations depending on its pathology. To understand better the nature of Mart's ailment it is necessary to use medical books of the time. A clear definition of the disease appears in an early nineteenth-century essay on the subject, written by Dr. Benjamin Bell and titled 'A treatise on the hydrocele, on sarcocele, or cancer, and other diseases of the testes (1794): A schirrous testicle, in the course of its progress, puts on such a variety of appearances, as renders it difficult, by description, to give an adequate idea of it. [AU]