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José Martí
Cuban Statesman, Poet, and Journalist (1853-1895)
José Martí was born in Havana in 1853. At seventeen he was exiled to Spain
for his opposition to colonial rule. There he published a pamphlet exposing the
horrors of political imprisonment in Cuba, which he himself had experienced.
Upon graduating from the University of Saragossa, he established himself in
Mexico City, where he began his literary career. His objection to a regime
installed by a military coup led him to depart for Guatemala, but government
abuses forced him to abandon that country as well. In 1878 he returned to Cuba
under a general amnesty, but he conspired against the Spanish authorities and
again was banished. He fled exile in Spain and came to the United States. After
a year in New York he left for Venezuela, where he hoped to settle, but yet
another dictatorship forced him to depart. Martí went back to New York where he
lived from 1881 to 1895. In that year, he left to join the war for Cuban
independence which he had so painstakingly organized. There he died in one of
its first skirmishes.
José Martí is considered one of the great writers of the Hispanic world. His
significance for the American Reader, however, stems from the universality and
timelessness of his thought. Martí devoted his life to ending colonial rule in
Cuba and to preventing the island from falling under the control of any country
(including the United States) whose political ideologies were inimical to the
principles he held. With those goals, and with the conviction that the freedom
of the Caribbean was crucial to Latin American security and to the balance of
power in the world, he devoted his talents to the forging of a nation. Thus, the
scope of his work: he was a revolutionary, a guide, and more importantly, a
mentor. His vast experience and education enabled him to move comfortably in the
most diverse fields, which is what makes his teachings so rich to us indeed.
Insofar as Martí believed that freedom and justice should be the cornerstones
of any government, one has only to read his work and learn of the struggle that
he took up freely. He could never accept the curtailment of the natural
expansiveness of the human spirit, for truly he believed that man's redemption
would come through love and unfettered reason. Therefore, his doctrines are, and
must be, at odds with the totalitarian dogma that has existed in Cuba since its
unfortunate demise.
All of Martí's teachings contradict that political system which never fails
to demonstrate its intolerance towards individual freedom and it's love of its
own materialistic empowerment. His writings condemn all despotic regimes and the
abridgment of human rights. Furthermore, he goes on to denounce the lack of
spirituality and type of arrogance that we find in the current dictatorship. For
this reason, the publication of Martí's thoughts, in all its force, is of the
greatest importance today. His beliefs, which can guide democracies and if
heeded, offer them greater security, speak more eloquently against the Cuban
apostasy than all the accusations that others might make.
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