This volume is presented as a biography in the broadest sense of the term. The body of the book consists of 30 photographs and 30 documents of or relating to Martí, an overview of his life, a chronology, and a selection of his thoughts. Together they tell in summary fashion the life history of the greatest political and literary figure in Cuban history.

The author collected the photographs and documents included in this book for an exhibition presented at Florida International University in 1991, while he was giving a seminar on "The Life and Works of José Martí." I am indebted to the many people who made this exhibition possible, and wish to express my gratitude to them here. My thanks in particular to Manuel A. Tellechea and Rafael Llerena, who devoted so much time and energy to the project.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

José Martí was an acute observer of the United States, where he lived for some fifteen years, and he is considered one of the great writers of the Hispanic world. His importance for the American reader however, stems even more from the universality and timeliness of his thought.

Martí devoted his life to ending colonial rule in Cuba and to preventing the island from falling under the control of the United States or a regime inimical to the democratic 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 talent to the forging of a nation. Thence the breadth of his works: he was a revolutionary, a statesman, a guide, and a mentor. And because his vast learning enabled him to move comfortably in the most diverse fields, his teaching is rich indeed.

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. From exile in Spain, he quickly left for the United States, and then, after a year in New York, for Venezuela, where he hoped to settle, only to have still another dictatorship force him to depart. Martí lived in New York from 1881 to 1895, when he left to join the war for Cuban independence that he had painstakingly organized. There he died in one of its first skirmishes.

1853. José Martí is born in Havana, on January 28, the son of Spanish parents.

1865- 1870. Studies with the poet and educator, Rafael M. de Mendive, at the Municipal School, and also attends the Havana Institute.

1870. Sentenced to six years imprisonment for conspiring against Spanish rule in Cuba.

1871. Deported to Spain after sentence is commuted; publishes there his denunciation of political imprisonment in Cuba.

1875. Rejoins his family, which has emigrated to Mexico; begins career as journalist at the Revista Universal; début of his play Amor con amor se paga.

1877. Moves to Guatemala, where he teaches at the Normal school and the University. In Mexico marries a Cuban émigré.

1878. End of Ten Years’ War for Cuban independence; returns with his wife to Havana where his only son is born.

1879. Deported again for conspiring against the government.

1880. Arrives in New York, where he writes for The Sun and The Hour.

1881. Relocates briefly to Venezuela, where he publishes a magazine and writes for a Caracas newspaper.

1882. Publishes in New York, Ismaelillo, his first book of verses.

1883-1890. Writes for several Latin American publications as a U.S. correspondent including newspapers in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Caracas and Mexico City; publishes his novel Amistad Funesta and various translations of English works; serves as consul general in New York of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

1891. Attends the International American Monetary Conference in Washington; publishes his essay on "Nuestra América" and his Versos Sencillos; resigns all consular posts and ceases writing for Latin American newspapers to devote himself exclusively to the cause of Cuban independence.

1892-1894. Founds Cuban Revolutionary Party; publishes in New York the newspaper Patria, which becomes the organ of the Party; tours exile communities to lobby for war against Spain; meets with Generals Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo, the leaders of the Ten Years’ War, and obtains their collaboration for a new uprising on the island.

1895. Prepares and equips armed expedition which is to sail from the coast of Florida to Cuba, but ships are embargoed and arms seized by U.S. Customs; leaves New York for Dominican Republic, where he writes the "Manifiesto de Montecristi"; lands clandestinely on the Southern coast of Cuba, and is killed in one of the first encounters of the war, on May 19, at Dos Ríos, Oriente Province.

THOUGHTS*

1.- Respect for the freedom and ideas of others, of even the most wretched being, is my fanaticism. When I die, or if I am killed, it will be because of that.

2.- Like bones to the human body, the axle to the wheel, the wing to the bird, and the air to the wing, so is liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect. 

3.- He who lives under autocratic rule is like an oyster in its shell that sees only the prison that confines it and, in the darkness, believes that to be the world. Freedom gives the oyster wings, and the portentous battle heard inside the shell turns out, in the light of day, to be the natural motion of life-blood in the world’s vigorous pulse.

4.- Excessive desire for material wealth, disdain for those who do not have it, undignified reverence for those who acquire it even at the expense of honor or through crime, brutalizes and corrupts republics. Those who practice or favor the worship of wealth should be denied respect and be looked upon as disguised enemies of the country, as filth and as Iagos. The rich, like thoroughbred horses, should have the pedigree of their fortunes open to public view.
5.- The purpose of social charity and social concern is to reform nature herself, for man can do that much; to give long arms to those whose arms are short; to even the chances for men who have few gifts; to compensate for lack of genius with education.

6.- A nation is made of men who resist and men who push, of affluence that monopolizes, and of justice that rebels, of arrogance that subjugates and belittles, and of decorum that neither deprives the arrogant of their place nor gives up its place to them. A nation is made of the rights and opinions of all its children, and not the rights and opinions of a single class.

7.- It is the duty of man to raise up man. One is guilty of all abjection that one does not help to relieve. Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity.

8.- Talent is given by nature and has the same value as an apricot or a nut. But character is different; man makes his own character; gives it life and color with his blood; saves it with his hands from temptations that call like sirens and from dangers that hiss like snakes. Character is indeed a source of pride, and he who displays it shines.

9.- Who is the ignoramus who says that poetry is not indispensable to nations? There are peoples so shortsighted that they think there’s nothing to the fruit beyond the skin. Poetry that unites and drives apart, that fortifies or distresses, that sustains or destroys spirit, that gives faith and encouragement or takes them away is more necessary to nations than industry itself. The latter gives men the means to subsist, while the former gives them the desire and strength to live.

10.- Education is the birthright of every man. Afterwards, in payment, he has the duty to contribute to the education of others.

11.- There is no racial hatred, because there are not races. Feeble thinkers, thinkers by lamplight, invent and rekindle booklearned races that impartial travelers and loving observers look for in vain in the order of nature, where the universal identity of man is evident in his victorious love and in his turbulent appetites. The same soul, equal and eternal, emanates from bodies different in shape and color.

12.- Everyone, straight or woolly haired, has a right to his free conscience. A Catholic who places himself above a Hindu is a tyrant, as is a Methodist who hisses at a Catholic. Let the Creoles who are prevented from denying and the Catholics who are prevented from professing find in us their shield. A sincere man has the right to err.

*From Martí: Thoughts/Pensamientos; A Bilingual Anthology, by Carlos Ripoll (New York: E. Torres & Sons, 1985).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

El Archivo Nacional en la conmemoración del centenario del natalicio de José Martí y Pérez, 1853-1953. Jorge Quintana, ed. La Habana: Archivo Nacional, 1953.

Atlas histórico biográfico de José Martí. La Habana: Instituto de Geodesia y Cartografía, 1982.

Carricarte, Arturo R. Iconografía del Apóstol José Martí. La Habana: Secretaría de Instrucción Pública y Bellas Artes, 1925.

Cuba. Comisión Central Pro-Monumento a Martí. En memoria de José Martí. La Habana: P. Fernández y Compañía, 1938.

José Martí (1853-1895). Vida y Obra. Bibliografía y Antología. Nueva York: Hispanic Institute in the U.S.. Columbia University, 1953.

Quesada, Gonzalo de. Iconografía Martiana. La Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1985.