9781422279762

one of the most important writers of his era. His essays and poetry in particular shaped modern Cuban literature—and were highly influential throughout Latin America. José Martí was born in Havana, the capital of what was then the Spanish colony of Cuba, in 1853. His parents were poor immigrants from Spain. Around the time Martí was beginning high school, Cuba’s first war for independence—known as the Ten Years’ War— broke out. Martí enthusiastically supported the cause and, at the age of 16, founded a newspaper devoted to promoting

Cuban revolutionaries wait in trenches for an attack by Spanish soldiers near Pinar del Río, 1890s.

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Arts and Literature of Cuba