Arts and Literature of Cuba
8
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.