José Julián Martí Pérez was a poet, philosopher, activist, and Cuban national hero.
Martí was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1853, the oldest of eight siblings born to Spanish parents. Cuba was then a colony of the Spanish Empire. When he was 15, the Ten Years’ War broke out, putting the Cuban upper classes in opposition to Spanish rule. He joined the cause of Cuban nationalism, writing poems and political essays, including “10 de Octubre,” which would become one of his most celebrated poems.
At 16, Martí was arrested for treason and sentenced to six years’ hard labor. After two years of declining health, he was exiled to Spain. Abroad, he studied at the Central University of Madrid, connected with other Cuban exiles, and continued to write critically about the Spanish regime in Cuba. He became an integral voice in support of Cuban independence, publishing pamphlets and newspaper articles and flying the first-ever Cuban flag in Madrid from his balcony.
Martí finished his studies in Zaragoza. He graduated from the Universidad Literaria with a degree in civil law and canon law and attended the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de Zaragoza. He briefly stopped in France, meeting Victor Hugo, before traveling to Mexico and Guatemala, as he was still unable to return to Cuba. Living in Mexico City, he joined the staff of the broadsheet Revista Universal, continuing his political pieces and publishing a serial translation of Hugo’s Mes Fils. He met María del Carmen Zayas-Bazán e Hidalgo, whom he would later marry. He also involved himself in labor organizing and became a delegate to the Congreso Obrero, the congress of the workers. He traveled back and forth to Guatemala, where he lectured, wrote, and, thanks to his increasing prestige as a political and literary thinker, became a department head at the Universidad Nacional.
Returning to Cuba in 1878, Martí found the Ten Years’ War ended without a change in Cuba’s colonial status. He and Zayas-Bazán e Hidalgo had a child, José Francisco. However, he was blocked from practicing law in Cuba. Martí traveled to New York and found himself in a flourishing community of exiles and radical thinkers from across South and Central America. He spent 14 years living there, writing across genres including prose, theater works, and political writing, published in major Latin outlets such as El Partido Liberal and La Nación. His famed poetry collection Versos Sencillos / Simple Verses appeared at this time, written while Martí recovered from an illness. He also served in diplomatic roles and founded the newspaper Patria, the official voice of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. His wife and child came to New York, but finding Martí entirely wrapped up in his organizing work, they returned to Havana; they would not meet again.
Martí was made a delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party in 1892. He traveled the United States’ East Coast and the Caribbean, making speeches to communities of exiled Cubans and meeting figures including Mexican president Porfirio Díaz to lay plans for the revolution. In 1895, the day Martí had worked for finally came, as an uprising became in Cuba. He wrote a manifesto explaining the movement’s goals and left for Cuba. Although the rebels tried to keep Martí out of the main action, he left the main body of the troops and was killed by the Spanish. He became a martyr, as ultimately his death brought more Cubans to his cause. He is remembered with reverence by Cubans and many around the world as the first fighter for a free Cuba, in which people of all backgrounds and races could be equal members of a democratic society.
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More José Martí
Text: Read poems by Martí at the Academy of American Poets
Video: Watch a documentary about Martí from South Florida PBS