JOSE MARTI
José Julián Martí Pérez (January 28, 1853–May 19, 1895) is a Cuban national hero and an important Latin American literary figure. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol for Cuba’s bid for independence against Spain in the 19th century and is referred to as the “Apostle of Cuban Independence”. He also fought against the threat of United States expansionism into Cuba. From adolescence, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba and an intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Martí began his political activism at a young age. From then on, he would travel extensively in Spain, Latin America, and the United States raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. His unification of the Cuban emigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. He died in action on May 19, 1895, during the Cuban War of Independence.
Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. His written works consist of a series of poems, essays, letters, lectures, a novel, and a children’s magazine. He wrote for numerous Latin American and American newspapers; he also created a number of newspapers himself. His newspaper Patria was a key instrument in his campaign for Cuban independence. The concepts of freedom, liberty, and democracy are prominent themes in all of his works. In many literary circles, Martí is considered the father of the literary movement Modernismo, predating and influencing Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and other poets, such as Gabriela Mistral
Life
Early life: Cuba 1853–870
José Julián Martí Pérez was born on January 28, 1853, in Havana, at 41 Paula St., to a Spanish Catalan father, Mariano Martí Navarro, and Leonor Pérez Cabrera, a native of the Canary Islands. Martí was the elder brother to seven sisters: Leonor, Mariana, Maria de Carmen, Maria de Pilar, Rita Amelia, Antonia and Dolores. He was baptized on February 12 in Santo Ángel Custodio church.
When he was four, his family moved from Cuba to Valencia, Spain, but two years later they returned to the island where they enrolled José at a local public school, in the Santa Clara neighborhood where his father worked as a prison guard. In 1865, he enrolled in the Escuela de Instrucción Primaria Superior Municipal de Varones that was headed by Rafael María de Mendive. Menidive was influential in the development of Martí’s political philosophies. In April the same year, after hearing the news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Martí and other young students expressed their pain—through group mourning—for the disappearance of a man who had decreed the abolition of slavery in a neighboring country. In 1866, Martí entered the Instituto de Segunda Ensañanza where Mendive financed his studies.
Martí signed up at the Escuela Professional de Pintura y Escultura de La Habana (Professional School for Painting and Sculpture of Havana) in September 1867, known as San Alejandro, to take drawing classes. He hoped to flourish in this area, but did not find commercial success. In 1867, he also entered the school of San Pablo, established and managed by Mendive, where he enrolled for the second and third years of his bachelor’s degree, and assisted Mendive with the school’s administrative tasks. In April 1968, his poem dedicated to Mendive’s wife , A Micaela. En la muerte de Miguel Ángel appeared in Guanabacoa’s newspaper El Álbum.
Martí had a precocious desire for the independence and freedom of Cuba. He started writing poems about this vision, while, at the same time, trying to do something to achieve this dream. When one of his friends joined the Spanish army, Martí and a friend wrote him a “reproving letter” which was later discovered by the authorities. This was proof for them that Martí was a rebel.
In 1869, he published his first political writings in the only edition of the newspaper El Diablo Cojuelo. That same year he published “Abdala”, a patriotic drama in verse form in the one-volume La Patria Libre. His famous sonnet “10 de octubre” was also written during that year, and was published later in his school newspaper.[
Despite this success, in March of that year, colonial authorities shut down the school, interrupting Martí’s studies. He came to resent Spanish rule of his homeland at a young age; likewise, he developed a hatred of slavery, which was still practiced in Cuba.
On 21 October 1869, aged 16, he was arrested and incarcerated in the national jail, following an accusation of treason from the Spanish government. More than four months later, Martí confessed to the charges and was condemned to six years in prison. His mother tried to free her son (who at 16 was still a minor) by writing letters to the government; his father went to a lawyer friend for legal support, but all efforts failed. Eventually Martí fell ill; his legs were severely lacerated by the chains that bound him. As a result, he was transferred to another part of Cuba known as Isla de Pinos instead of further imprisonment. Following that, they decided to repatriate him to Spain. In Spain, Martí, who was 18 at the time, was allowed to continue his studies with the hopes that studying in Spain would renew his loyalty to Spain.
Spain 1871–1874
In January 1871, Marti embarked on the steam ship Guipuzcoa, which took him from Havana to Cadiz. He settled in Madrid in a guesthouse in Desengano St. # 10. Arriving at the capital he contacted Carlos Sauvalle, who had been deported to Spain a year before Martí and whose house served as a center of reunions for Cubans in exile. On March 24, Cadiz’s newspaper La Soberania Nacional, published Martí’s article “Castillo” in which he recalled the sufferings of a friend he met in prison. This article would be reprinted in Sevilla’s La Cuestion Cubana and New York’s La Republica. At this time, Martí registered himself as a member of independent studies in the law faculty of Madrid’s Universidad Central.
In July and August 1871, he edited a pamphlet called El Presidio Politico en Cuba. In September, from the pages of El Jurado Federal, Marti and Sauvalle accused the newspaper La Prensa of having calumniated the Cuban residents in Madrid. During his stay in Madrid, Marti frequented the Ateneo and the National Library, the Café de los Artistas, and the British, Swiss and Iberian brewery. In November he became sick and had an operation, paid for by Sauville.
On the 27 of November 1871, eight medical students, who had been accused (without evidence) of the desecration of a Spanish grave, were executed in Havana.
In June 1872, Fermín Valdés was arrested because of the November 27 incident. His six years of jail were pardoned and he was exiled to Spain where he reunited with Martí. On November 27, 1872, the printed matter Dia 27 de Noviembre de 1871 (27 November 1871) written by Martí and signed by Fermín Valdés Domínguez, and Pedro J. de la Torre circulated Madrid. A group of Cubans held a funeral in the Caballero de Gracia church, the first anniversary of the medical students’ execution.
In 1873, Martí’s “A mis Hermanos Muertos el 27 de Noviembre” was published by Fermín Valdés. In February, for the first time, the Cuban flag appeared in Madrid, hanging from Martí’s balcony in Concepción Jerónima, where he lived for a few years. In the same month he edited a pamphlet called La Republica Española ante la Revolución Cubana. He sent examples of his work to Nestor Ponce de Leon, a member of the Junta Central Revolucionaria de Nueva York (Central revolutionary committee of New York), to whom he would express his will to collaborate on the fight for the independence of Cuba.
In May, he moved to Zaragoza, accompanied by Fermín Valdés to continue his studies in law at the Universidad Literaria. The newspaper La Cuestión Cubana of Sevilla, published numerous articles from Martí.
In June 1874, Marti graduated with a degree in Civil Rights and Canon Law. In August he signed up as an external student at the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de Zaragoza, where he finished his degree by October. In November he returned to Madrid and then left to Paris. There he met Auguste Vacquerie, a poet, and Victor Hugo. In December 1874 he embarked from Le Havre for Mexico.
Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Spain 1875–1879
Since he was prohibited from coming to Cuba, Martí went to Mexico and Guatemala, where he taught and wrote, talking continually about Cuba’s independence. In 1875, Martí and his family lived on Moneda St. in Mexico City. A floor above him lived Manuel Mercado, the Secretary of the Distrito Federal government, who would become one of Martí’s best friends. On March 2, he published his first article for the Revista Universal, a newspaper concerning politics, literature and business, led by Vicente Villada.
On March 12, his translation of Mis Hijos by Victor Hugo started to appear serially in the aforementioned newspaper. Martí then became a part of the editorial staff, responsible for the section called “Boletín”. In these writings he expressed his opinion about the everyday events of Mexico.
In May 27, on the pages of the newspaper Revista Universal he responded to the anti-Cuban manifestations of the La Colonia Española newspaper. In December, La Sociedad Gorostiza, a group of writers and artists accepted Martí among its new members. He met his future wife, a Cuban woman named Carmen Zayas Bazán, during his frequent visits to her father’s house to meet with La Sociedad Gorostiza.
On January 1st 1876, in Oaxaca, contrary elements to Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada’s Mexican government, led by General Porfirio Díaz, proclaimed the Plan of Tuxtepec, instigating a bloody civil war. Martí and other Mexican intellectuals established the Sociedad Alarcón, integrated by dramatic authors, actors and critiques.
At this time, Martí began his collaboration with the El Socialista newspaper as executive of the Gran Círculo Obrero (Great Labour Circle) organization of the liberals and reformists that supported president Lerdo de Tejada. In March this newspaper proposed a series of candidates, including Martí, for delegates of the first congress of the country’s workers.
On June 4, La Sociedad Esperanza de Empleados (Hope for Employees Society) designated Martí as a delegate of the Congreso Obrero (Labour Congress). On December 7, in his article “Alea Jacta est” published in the El Federalista newspaper, Martí severely criticized the armed assault of the Porfiristas on the constitutional power. On December 16, in El Federalista his article “Extranjero”, in which he repeated his denunciation and bade farewell to the Mexican city, appeared. On December 29 he left Mexico City for Veracruz by train.
In 1877, using his second and last names, Julián Pérez, for a pseudonym, Martí embarked on the Ebroand went to Havana, hoping to arrange the moving of his family from Mexico City. He returned to Mexico, arriving at the Progreso Port, from which through Isla de Mujeres y Belice he travelled to Guatemala. In April he settled in Cuarta Avenida, south of the city of Guatemala. Ordered by the Guatemalan government, he wrote the drama Patria y Libertad (Drama Indio). He personally met the president of Guatemala, Justo Rufino Barrios. On April 22, the El Progreso newspaper published his article “Los Códigos Nuevos” (The New Codes).
On May 29 he was appointed head of the Department of French, English, Italian and German Literature, History and Philosophy, in the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts in the Universidad Nacional. On July 25 he participated as a lecturer in the opening evening of the Sociedad Literaria El Porvenir, in Teatro Colon, where he was appointed the vice-president of the society. He became known as “Doctor Torrente” (Doctor Torrent). Throughout July Martí would give free classes on composition at the girls’ academy Academia de Niñas de Centroamérica, run by Margarita Izaguirre. Among the students he met Maria García Granados, daughter of the Guatemalan ex-president Miguel García Granados, who fell in love with Martí. In November , he travelled to Mexico and on December 20 decided to marry Carmen Zayas Bazán.
In the beginning of January 1878 Martí returned to Guatemala and his classes resumed. In January his book Guatemala, edited in Mexico, was published. On May 10, María García Granados from the Academia de Niñas de Centroamérica died from lung disease. Her frustrated love for Martí gave her the name “La niña de Guatemala, la que se murió de amor” (the Guatemalan girl who died of love). Following her death, Martí returned to Cuba, where he finished signing the Pact of Zanjón which ended the Cuban Ten Years’ War.
During this same trip he married Carmen Zayas Bazán on Havana’s Tulipán Street. In October his request to practice as a lawyer in Cuba was turned down so he proceeded to immerse himself in conspiratorial works such as working for the Comité Revolucinario Cubano de Nueva York (Cuban Revolutionary Committee of New York). On November 2 his son José “Pepito” Francisco was born
In 1879 José Martí lived at 115 Industrial St. in Havana. He worked as Secretary of the Literature section in the Liceo de Guanabacoa school as well as working in the Nicolás Azcárate law office. He befriended Juan Gualberto, a mulatto, and collaborated with him on activities supporting independence. On March 18 Martí created the Club Central Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary Club) in Havana, and was designated its vice-president. He later dissolved this organization.
On April 21 he carried out a discourse against the autonomist politics, in the banquette held by Adolfo Márquez Sterling, director of discussion in the El Louvre cafe. On April 27, in a gathering in honor of the Cuban violinist Díaz Albertini in the Liceo de Guanabacoa, he demonstrated his inspiration for Cuban independence in the presence of the Spanish general-captain of the island, Ramón Blanco y Erenas.
The Comité Revolucionario Cubano de Nueva York appointed José María Aguilera the island’s delegate and José Martí the sub-delegate. On August 25 Martí started the call of the Guerra Chiquita (Little War) in Havana, conspiring an uprising with Martí Aguilera and Juan Gualberto Gómez, among others.
In September, Martí, possibly given away by a spy, was captured and deported to Spain, without allowing him to defend himself in the court. His wife and son were left behind in Cuba. He arrived in Madrid in October and he visited the Prado Museum and the Ateneo library, where he gave hours of lectures.
In December he secretly left Spain and arrived in Paris, and before the end of the year he embarked from Le Havre for New York.
