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Poetry 9
Cuban independence. He was
soon arrested. His sentence was
harsh—six years at hard
labor—but he was released
after serving only a few months
and deported to Spain.
While in Spain, Martí pub-
lished political essays. He also
obtained a law degree and a
doctorate in philosophy and the
humanities.
After a yearlong teaching stint in Guatemala, Martí
returned to Cuba in September 1878. The following year, how-
ever, another rebellion against Spanish rule broke out. Martí—
now married and with a young son—was accused of sedition
against Spain and again deported.
By 1881, he and his family had settled in New York City.
There Martí would spend most of the remainder of his life. He
supported himself through journalism, serving as a correspon-
dent for several Latin American newspapers and writing pieces
for U.S. publications. But his literary output was prodigious
and wide ranging. He wrote fiction, poetry, essays, and literary
criticism. He published a magazine for children.
The cause to which Martí dedicated his life, however, was
Cuban independence. In 1892, he helped unite a diverse group
of Cuban exiles to found the Cuban Revolutionary Party. Over
the next several years, he organized support for another war
for independence among exile communities in the United
States, the Caribbean, and Central America. He envisioned a
Scan here
for a tour of
the house
where José
Martí was
born, now a
museum:
Educational
Video