[PW] "Better to Die on Your Feet" (Quotation Query #641)

[swguardian-stumpers at yahoo.com]

I have never seen anything of Jose Marti's that included this quote. Perhaps I missed it if in fact he did, but then, it may just be that these strong words were originated by a person who was not famous and who's name may now be hidden within the mists of time and history. It does not take a famous person to create such memorable words, it only takes a person with a great heart.
   
  The Decatur Review 
Decatur, Illinois
2 May 1926 
   
  Guernavaca, was the home of Zapata, "the barefooted bandit," as people called him. Zapata 
  was an Indian fighting for land for the landless peons. His people loved him. The day that the 
  news reached Cuernavaca that Zapata had been assassinated, an old Indian cut this 
  significant, sentence with his knife on one of the posts at the entrance of the:Garden of Maximilian: "Rebels of the South, it Is more honorable to die on your feet than to live on your
knees." 

Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
  
According to that great quotation resource, Wikipedia, "It is better to 
die on your feet than live on your knees" was originated (in a Spanish 
version, of course), not by Zapata or La Pasionara, but by Jose Marti. 
Can anyone point me to any evidence for this assertion? John Dyson?

Fred Shapiro


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