José Martí

José Martí was a Cuban poet, journalist and revolutionary who spent most of his adult life in exile in Spain, Mexico, Guatemala and New York, and was killed in battle at Dos Ríos in 1895 fighting for Cuban independence from Spain. He founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party and is regarded as Cuba's national hero. His 1891 essay Our America calls on the peoples of Latin America to know themselves, govern according to their own realities and stand together against the growing power of the United States.

Key ideas

• Latin American nations must be governed according to their own realities, not by copying European or North American models.
• Good government comes from knowing the land's own elements, including its Indigenous, African and mixed peoples.
• There is no natural hatred between races; in his words, there are no races, only the inventions of thinkers who work by lamplight.
• The peoples of 'our America' must unite to resist domination by the powerful neighbour to the north.
• Education should teach the history and conditions of one's own country before those of distant places.

Major works

• Our America (1891)
• Ismaelillo (1882)
• The Golden Age (1889)
• Simple Verses (1891)

In the Book corner

• Our America 1891 · Beginner
  A short political essay that the Cuban poet and independence leader wrote in New York and published in January 1891, first in…

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