José Martí Reader

Teacher, journalist, revolutionary and poet, José Martí interweaves the threads of Latin American culture and history, fervently condemning the brutality and corruption of the Spanish colonizers as well as the increasingly predatory ambitions of the United States in Latin America. “I have lived in the monster and I know its entrails; my sling is David’s,” Martí wrote shortly before his death. José Martí was born in Cuba in 1853. At 17 the Spanish imprisoned him for treason. He subsequently lived most of his life in exile, traveling throughout Latin America. Martí lived in New York for 14 years before returning to Cuba where he was killed during the War for Independence against Spain in 1895.