Business Audio Books

     SonicMovies are premium audios with strong vocal performances enhanced by music and sound effects so they sound like movies, hence, SonicMovies. - SonicMovie.net

     A Message to Garcia, the SonicMovie, produced by SonicMovie.net, is the inspirational essay on management, leadership, and accomplishing tasks, in which, U.S. Army Major Rowan dispatched to Cuba to find general Garcia asked no questions, made no objections, requested no help, and accomplished the mission.

     A Message to Garcia is an inspirational essay written by Elbert Hubbard that has been made into two motion pictures.  It was originally published as a filler without a title in the March, 1899 issue of the Philistine magazine which he edited, but was quickly reprinted as a pamphlet and a book. It was wildly popular, selling over 40 million copies, and translated into 37 languages by the time of the Manchurian Campaign, Russo Japanese War February 10, 1904 - September 5, 1905. It also became a well-known allusion in American popular and business culture until the middle of the twentieth century.

     The essay celebrates the initiative of a soldier, Major Andrew Summers Rowan, a West Point graduate of 1881 who was assigned and accomplished a daunting mission to find General Garcia, the leader of Cuban insurgents fighting for independence against Spanish rule when the Spanish American War began in April and ended August 1898, over the issues of the liberation of Cuba. The war began after American demand for the resolution of the Cuban fight for independence was rejected by Spain. Strong expansionist sentiment in the United States motivated the government to develop a plan for annexation of Spain's remaining overseas territories including Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

     The revolution in Havana prompted the United States to send in the battleship USS Maine to indicate high national interest. Tension among the American people was raised because of an explosion on board the USS Maine and its sinking on February 15, 1898 when her forward gunpowder magazines exploded. Nearly three-quarters of the battleship's crew died as a result of the explosion.

     While the cause of this great tragedy is still unsettled, whether the explosion was internal and a result of the Americans or Spanish forces shelled the warship, contemporary American popular opinion blamed Spain, and war follow, propelling the United States into battle with Spain.

     At onset of the Spanish-American War, as the American army prepared to invade the Spanish colony of Cuba, they wished to contact the leader of the Cuban insurgents who controlled the plains of the Cauto to coordinate or at least prevent conflicting strategies. This was Calixto García e Iñiguez, who had been fighting the Spanish for Cuban independence since the Ten Years' War of 1868-78, and sought the help of the United States. He was then residing in the city of Bayamo.

     In the essay, Major Rowan dispatched to Cuba to find general Garcia asked no questions, made no objections, requested no help, and accomplished the mission. The essay exhorts the reader to apply this attitude to his own life as an avenue to success. Its wide popularity reflected the general appeal of self-reliance and energetic problem solving in American culture. Its "don't ask questions, get the job done" message was often used by business leaders as a motivational message to their employees.

    
     It was given to every U.S. Navy enlistee and U.S. Marine in both world wars, and often memorized by schoolchildren. It is studied by plebes, first year students, at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, and U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. A copy of it is often given to Marine Non-Commissioned Officers upon their promotion. It is estimated to be one of the highest-selling books in history, essentially due to American employers purchasing copies in bulk to distribute to their employees.

     This "enlightened, inspirational" interpretation prevails today, despite the fact Rowan was hidden by Cuban rebels in Jamaica before being taken to Cuba; was met by 200 cavalry and delivered to Garcia; was held by the British quarantine in the Bahamas for ten days; and the sole immediate recognition he received was to be given combat command of a company of U.S. Army "Immunes," who were African American/Black troops assumed to be immune to jungle diseases. However, the Immunes died as quickly as any troops once infected, in a brief war that killed more U.S. personnel by malaria than by bullets.
    
     But the reality is despite all this, Major Rowan took responsibility for his task and accomplished it.
    
     In fact, "A Message to Garcia" may have been intended to embarrass Hubbard's son, Bert, into more responsible action at the Philistine magazine and other elements of Hubbard's egalitarian gathering of artists and craftsmen in East Aurora, New York.

     Elbert Hubbard died with the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915, by a German U-boat, en route with his wife to England and Berlin on a mission to encourage an end of war. He was optimistic in this endeavor, despite a notice in the New York Times warning that vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, could be sunk.

     Major Andrew Rowan died obscurely in the Presidio of San Francisco. It was 22 years before the Army decorated him for this mission.

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