José Marti

José Martí, whose full name was José Julian Martí y Pérez, was born in Havana on 28.01.1853 and died on 19.05.1895 in Dos Ríos in what was then the province of Oriente. He was the first-born son of eight children of Mariano Martí Navarro and Leonor Pérez Cabrera. His parents were both from Spain, but his father was transferred to Cuba as a non-commissioned officer in the Spanish colonial army, which is why the family lived in Cuba rather than Spain.

José Martí began to take an interest in poetry in his youth, writing poems and sympathizing early on with the idea of resistance against the Spanish occupying power. In his play "Abdala", he showed his militant patriotism quite openly. This play was the reason why he was forcibly deported to Spain in 1871 and sentenced to forced labor there.

He began his law studies in Zaragoza. He returned to Cuba in 1878 and was exiled just one year later. He initially lived in Mexico, where he studied Mayan culture. From April 1877 to July 1878 he lived in Guatemala. In 1881, he moved to New York and wrote several works there, including the volume of poetry "Versos Sencillos" (Simple Verses). At this time, he organized the political and military struggle against the colonial power Spain from exile. In 1892, together with Cuban tobacco workers in Florida, he founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party "Partido Revolucionario Cubano". He was also able to persuade the two most important military leaders of the guerrilla war from 1868 to 1878, Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez, to resume the fight against the Spanish colonial power.