José Martí

José Martí (born January 28, 1853, Havana, Cuba—died May 19, 1895, Dos Ríos) was a Cuban poet and essayist, patriot and martyr, who became the symbol of Cuba’s struggle for independence from Spain. His dedication to the goal of Cuban freedom made his name a synonym for liberty throughout Latin America. As a patriot, Martí organized and unified the movement for Cuban independence and died on the battlefield fighting for it. As a writer, he was distinguished for his personal prose and deceptively simple, sincere verse on themes of a free and united America.

Educated first in Havana, Martí had published several poems by the age of 15, and at age 16 he founded a newspaper, La Patria Libre (“The Free Fatherland”). During a revolutionary uprising that broke out in Cuba in 1868, he sympathized with the patriots, for which he was sentenced to six months of hard labour and, in 1871, deported to Spain. There he continued his education and his writing, receiving both an M.A. and a degree in law from the University of Zaragoza in 1874 and publishing political essays. He spent the next few years in France, in Mexico, and in Guatemala, writing and teaching, and returned to Cuba in 1878.

Because of his continued political activities, however, Martí was again exiled from Cuba to Spain in 1879. From there he went to France, to New York City, and, in 1881, to Venezuela, where he founded the Revista Venezolana (“Venezuelan Review”). The politics of his journal, however, provoked Venezuela’s dictator, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, and Martí returned that year to New York City, where he remained, except for occasional travels, until the year of his death.

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Martí continued to write and publish newspaper articles, poetry, and essays. His regular column in La Nación of Buenos Aires made him famous throughout Latin America. His poetry, such as the collection Versos libres (1913; “Free Verses”), written between 1878 and 1882 on the theme of freedom, reveals a deep sensitivity and an original poetic vision. Martí’s essays, which are considered by most critics his greatest contribution to Spanish American letters, helped to bring about innovations in Spanish prose and to promote better understanding among the American nations. In essays such as “Emerson” (1882), “Whitman” (1887), “Nuestra América” (1881; “Our America”), and “Bolívar” (1893), Martí expressed his original thoughts about Latin America and the United States in an intensely personal style that is still considered a model of Spanish prose. His writings reflect his exemplary life, his kindness, his love of liberty and justice, and his deep understanding of human nature. Collections of English translations of Martí’s writings are Inside the Monster: Writings on the United States and American Imperialism (1975), Our America: Writings on Latin America and the Cuban Struggle for Independence (1978), and On Education (1979)—all edited by Philip Foner.

In 1892 Martí was elected delegado (“delegate”; he refused to be called president) of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (“Cuban Revolutionary Party”) that he had helped to form. Making New York City the centre of operations, he began to draw up plans for an invasion of Cuba. He left New York for Santo Domingo on January 31, 1895, accompanied by the Cuban revolutionary leader Máximo Gómez and other compatriots. They arrived in Cuba to begin the invasion on April 11. Martí’s death a month later in battle on the plains of Dos Ríos, Oriente province, came only seven years before his lifelong goal of Cuban independence was achieved.