This chapter shows how a concert held on the West Side of Manhattan on New Year's Day 1897 served to unite and mobilize the networks that Rafael Serra and his allies had built over two decades. This was conducted in defense of a struggle against all privileges, and to celebrate, in the name of democracy and patriotic unity, the loyalty of that group to the party leader. As the war unfolded in Cuba, Figueroa and Serra engaged in a war of position, picking their near-term battles carefully in order to situate themselves advantageously for the coming struggle to preserve democratic values within the Cuban republic and for the political competitions that would follow. Supported by the men and women who gathered in the concert hall on New Year's Day, they were emerged victorious in one of the few open maneuvers in this long-simmering conflict. This chapter shows that the fact that Serra and Figueroa could still effectively maneuver within the Cuban Revolutionary Party, even after the death of Martí, sheds clear light on one of the major questions posed by this book. In short, the chapter considers what lasting impact the conflicts and alliances created within the Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York had on the evolution of Cuban politics after independence.
