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SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT EMERGENCY RELIEF COUNCIL of Hillsborough County
Branch: 1613 Ninth Ave. TAMPA, FLORIDA
May 21, 1935
RE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GERARDO CORTINA
It is my opinion that this man's line of thought;- if so it could be called, - and his attitude to things established, should be considered an individual case, similar to which, there may be a few among the people of our community, but it is case in no way representative of the majority of the Latins who form this group of the unemployed in Ybor City
S/ Mrs. Jose Quintana Supervisor - 1613, 9th St. Office
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MY OPINION ON THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY WRITTEN BY MR. CORTINA
I have had the opportunity to read the autobiography written by Mr. Gerardo Cortina, in which I acknowledge his mental strain to demonstrate his desire for the well being of the conmunity. Nevertheless, a lack of education and experience, as well as natural intelligence, is noticeable in his writing, and according to his expressions he seems to be a fanatical "radical" but due to his poor preparation it seems that he is not capacitated to give his opinion on "radicalism."
In Tampa, as well as in other parts of the country, we find individuals of his scarce preparation that through their ignorance are considered "mere fools," expressing themselves in such a way as to appear to be opposed to the present system of government, believing themselves capable of controlling the world. One of the fatalities of this life is ignorance and an ignorant person conceives erroneous illusions by which we cannot guide ourselves.
I happen to know Mr. Gerardo Cortina well because I have worked together with him on different projects and I do not wish to accuse him, but to do justice, in my estimation, he is a person of little culture. The way he expresses himself denotes that he does not know what he is talking about. I would venture to say that he does not even know the meaning of social life, committing many errors which place him in ridicule among his fellow-workers. Sincerely I am sorry for him because if he has read books on philosophy, he does not seem to have comprehended and all he has acquired are erroneous notions.
In Ybor City we have many persons that are ignorant due to their meager education, thinking themselves authorized to govern others. In his
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early life Mr. Cortina was an apprentice in a printing shop and his job was to draw lines across blank paper. Because of this experience he has gotten the idea that he is to draw lines of conduct in the community when these were, are, and will be imposed by the government to guide the nation by election of the people.
It is regrettable to have so many feeble minded persons as Mr. Cortina in the communities. To claim a right it is natural that a person must respect others' rights and so it happens that this person always feels that others are indebted to him. I bring this up because on several projects that I have worked together with Mr. Cortina I have noticed that he evaded as ratich as possible the work to be done, claiming incapacity when this work did not require any intelligence or experience, which makes me come to the conclusion that he is just plain lazy. I state this without prejudice, not wishing to degrade his person but just with the mere idea to identify this individual that is incapacitated to be a director and, needless to be said, to be directed.
As to his moral conduct, I have found out that his wife had to divorce him because he is not a man to comply with his obligations, discarding devotion for his personal freedom.
Therefore, I do not consider Mr. Cortina capable of handling sociological work, in which is necessary a certain amount of education, besides the natural intelligence and the desire to cooperate.
This is my sincere opinion,
Manuel Marrero.
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