19th Century Cuban priest honored in U.S.

Published Saturday, July 5, 1997, in the Miami Herald

19th Century Cuban priest honored in U.S.

Miami lawyer Jorge Sosa had an ambitious dream 10 years ago. He wanted to put the image of the Rev. Felix Varela, the Cuban-born social reformer, on a U.S. postal stamp.

It is not Varela's important work in Cuba that moved Sosa to take on a campaign that at times seemed futile. It was the priest's mission in the United States. What Varela did for the liberty of Cuban people was historic. But the story of what he did for the American people, though still largely obscure, is too powerful not to repeat over and over.

Students of Cuban history know well the progressive life work of Varela, an advocate for the poor and sick, an early abolitionist and feminist, a voice for Cuban independence.

Sosa read about Varela's deeds when he was a student at Cornell, eager to explore his Cuban roots. But in his search through rare and limited documents, he stumbled upon the most fascinating and universally important part of Varela's life -- his exile in the United States.

He learned about Varela's passion for helping immigrants and minorities, his work with the disenfranchised, his struggle for justice. He learned that Varela lived among the cholera-stricken, founded three churches in New York, established a Spanish-language newspaper, became the vicar general of the New York Diocese.

Sosa tried to picture this Cuban priest greeting Irish immigrants at the New York docks at a time when these immigrants were taunted and discriminated against. They were fleeing famine just as Varela had fled havoc in Spain, where he served as a Cuban representative.

Reading about Varela's life inspired Sosa not only as a Cuban-born exile, but as an American. And he thought the whole country should know about Varela's universal struggles.

``I think he deserves a stamp,'' Sosa decided in 1987, as the 200th anniversary of Varela's birth approached. So he proposed one. He wrote to the president, the postmaster general, members of Congress, anyone he thought could make it happen. He joined a Varela bicentennial committee to promote information on the priest's life.

In those 10 years, the Varela stamp idea was brought up twice before the civil board that considers new stamps -- and twice it was rejected.

``I never questioned the validity of the stamp, but I thought, `This is just not going to happen,' '' says the 48-year-old Sosa.

But he learned something that gave him hope -- a trustee of the U.S. Postal Service was a Los Angeles-based Cuban-American doctor, Tirso del Junco. And Sosa knew this doctor's sister.

Although he can't say for sure, Sosa believes it was Dr. Del Junco, now chairman of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, who was key in bringing to life the power of Felix Varela's story.

A decade into Sosa's dream, the Postal Service will issue a 32-cent commemorative stamp bearing the image of Varela. The stamp art will be unveiled Aug. 1 in St. Augustine, where Varela lived as an orphaned child and died in 1853.

But this, the first U.S. stamp bearing a Cuban American, will be issued in September in Dade County. More than 100 million will be printed, a fact that fuels Sosa's next campaign: to get people to buy the stamps.

Sosa says he has learned, in the teachings of Varela, a great thing about being American.

``Emphasizing your roots doesn't limit your branches. A tree is a beautiful metaphor to describe his life.''