José Martí
(Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)
(Note to reader: As part of my History and Cultures class in my American Studies Master's program at Kennesaw State University, I studied the Cuban poet and journalist, José Martí. Here is a short biography.)
José Martí was a Cuban poet and journalist who fought for Cuban independence. He was known as the Apostle of the Cuban Revolution.
Martí was born in Havana, Cuba on January 28, 1853, to impoverished Spanish immigrant parents. As a young boy he had a talent for painting and then writing. By the age of 16 his writing started to appear in print. Also, he began to develop his political aspirations for the independence of Cuba by writing about the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878).
In 1869, Martí created the newspaper La Patria Libre and published some of his first poems, including his work “Abdala” which describes the liberation of an imaginary country. That same year he was arrested for criticism of Spain’s rule in Cuba and was sentenced to six years of hard labor.
In 1871 Martí was released and exiled to Spain, where he published a pamphlet called Political Imprisonment in Cuba, in which he wrote about his harsh treatment in jail. He furthered his education by studying law at the Central University of Madrid and University of Zaragoza, completing his degree in 1874.
In 1875 Martí moved to Mexico and continued to campaign for Cuban independence. Soon he became disenchanted with the government in Mexico and moved to Guatemala in 1877 where he became a professor at the Universidad Nacional where he taught literature, history and philosophy.
In Guatemala he married Carmen Zayas Bazán. When the Ten Years War ended in 1878 Martí returned to Cuba with his wife and they had a son, José. Martí planned to practice law on his return, but the Cuban government wouldn’t allow this, so he was forced to find work as a teacher. Soon Martí was arrested again for conspiracy due to clashes between farmers and slaves with Spanish troops. Again, he was forced to leave Cuba.
After this Martí lived in France and Venezuela for a time and then, in 1881, moved to New York City, where he wrote for both Spanish and English language newspapers. During this time, he wrote his most famous essay “Our America” which called for all Latin American countries to unite. During his time in the United States, he established contacts with many fellow Cubans in exile and was a diplomat to other Latin American countries such as Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.
In 1892 Martí became a delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and began plans to invade Cuba to help establish a new Cuban government. He wanted to overthrow the existing government quickly to prevent the United States from getting involved and taking over the island for their use.
Martí joined forces with two Ten Years War veterans, Generals Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo and, with the help of donations from various Cuban exiles and other organizations, left on January 31, 1895, for Cuba to carry out his plans for the new Cuban government. Several months later upon landing in Cuba in April to carry out their fight, Martí was killed by Spanish troops in Dos Rios on May 19, 1895.
Fidel Castro was influenced by Martí for carrying out his own revolution of Cuba in the late 1950’s. Martí is considered a national hero by the Cuban people today.
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