Martí, José (1853–1895)

José Julián Martí y Pérez, commonly known as José Martí, was born in Havana, Cuba, on January 28, 1853, to Mariano Martí, a sergeant in the Spanish army, and Leonor Pérez Cabrera, both of whom were Spanish citizens living in colonial Cuba. He died on May 19, 1895, during a battle he helped orchestrate, the Second War of Independence, fighting, as ever, for his life's cause—Cuban Independence. Though he never saw his life's goal come to fruition, Martí left behind a legacy that has inspired anti-colonial fights across the globe and a masterful literary oeuvre and philosophy that has altered perceptions of art, a shift whose reverberations are still felt today. Arguably, he is the most revered figure in Cuban history and one of its most prolific and important writers.

Martí gained intimate knowledge of colonial oppression at an early age through his parents, who supported Spanish colonial rule in Cuba. Exposed to his parents' colonial views, at the same time Martí witnessed physical demonstrations of colonial oppression. For instance, at age 8, Martí saw the beating of black slaves, a memory that would haunt him throughout his life. His anger and frustration at that moment was an early expression of feelings and beliefs that Martí would later pronounce as his reason for being. It was inevitable that Martí would grow apart from his parents philosophically as his dedication to the fight for Cuban independence grew to maturity during his teenaged years. It was also inevitable that he would grow close to Rafael María de Mendive, the director of his school, the Municipal Senior Boys' School. Mendive was a renowned anti-colonial intellectual who would mentor Martí in his nascent career as a pro-independence fighter.

During the First War of Independence in 1868, with the guidance and financial support of Mendive, Martí attended weekly salons alongside leading intellectuals and began privately publishing pamphlets and newspapers. Most notably, he participated in the publication of El Diablo Cojuelo (The Limping Devil), and La Patria Libre (The Free Fatherland)—the latter is where his famed poem “Abdala” first appeared. The main character in “Abdala” sacrifices his life in the fight against colonial rule, a harbinger for how Martí's life would unfold.

In 1869, Martí was sentenced to 6 years of hard labor in the quarries of San Lázaro for writing a letter that criticized a former classmate's decision to join the Spanish forces. Because of his political connections, he served only 6 months. Though his incarceration was brief, he still came away with disabilities that beleaguered him throughout his life. He recounts his harsh experience as a political prisoner in the 1871 essay “El presidio político de Cuba” (The Political Prison in Cuba). He was then sent into exile in Spain. In 1873, he wrote a companion piece titled “La república española ante la revolución cubana” (The Spanish Republic Faced by the Cuban Revolution). Both essays garnered Martí an international audience as well as intellectual persecution. In fact, in Spain, he became a much-sought-after speaker and writer.

He wrote “La república española ante la revolución cubana” in response to the hypocritical stance Spain took by declaring Spain a republic while still keeping Cuba as a colony. Later that year, Spain called together all Cubans living in Madrid hoping to get a declaration of support for the republic, which would in turn display Cuban support for Spain's presence in Cuba. After speaking to the congregation for 7 hours, José came to realize that the money interests of the Cuban émigré community in Madrid outweighed their desire for Cuban independence, and so he left for Zaragoza. When he graduated, he received degrees in philosophy, law, and letters from the universities of Zaragoza and Madrid.

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