José Martí

January 28, 1853
José Julian Marti Perez was born in Havana to Mariano Mari y Navarro, a Spaniard from Valencia and a first sergeant in the Royal Artillery Corps of the Spanish army, and Leonor Perez Cabrera, originally from Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

In 1869, he published his first political writings in the only edition of the newspaper El Diablo Conjuelo, published by Fermin Valdes Dominguez. Valdez Dominguez, the son of a wealthy slave-owning family, was Marti's best friend and was also instrumental in his development of a social and political conscience.

In 1873 Spain declares itself a Republic, after which Marti publishes "The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution" demanding for Cubans the same rights Spaniards are now claiming for themselves.

Martí traveled to Mexico City in early 1875, where he worked as a high school teacher and began to gain attention as a journalist, playwright and orator. His articles criticized growing inequality in Mexico City, eventually resulting in Mexico's dictator, Portifiro Diaz, pressuring him to leave.

Martí returned to Cuba in 1879, only to be exiled again for his continued political activism.

He traveled to Venezuela in 1881 where he taught, gave lectures, wrote articles, and founded a magazine, Revista Venezolana. However, after an article in the second issue of the magazine upset Venezuela's president Antonio Guzman Blanco in June, he was forced to leave.

In 1884 Marti broke with Generals Maximo Gomez and Antonio Maceo over their vision of an independent Cuba with a military government.

In 1885 Amistad Funesta (Fatal Friendship) or Lucia Jerez, Marti's only novel, is published in installments in the New York magazine Latino-Americano.

In September of 1889 Marti played an active role in the Pan-American Conference in which delegates from across Latin-America met in Washington D.C.

In 1889, Marti published a series of children's stories in his magazine "La Edad de Oro" (The Golden Age). Four issues of the magazine were published before his financial backer withdrew funding, as he preferred a magazine with religious content.

In 1890 Marti assisted in the founding of, and taught at, La Liga, a school for black Cubans and Puerto Ricans in New York, . He opened another branch of this school in Tampa, Florida the following year.

Later in 1890 he was named consul of Argentina and Paraguay in New York and began teaching night courses in Spanish at the Central Evening High School.

1892 In January, Marti participated in a meeting of the leaders of various exile groups in Cayo Hueso at which the Partido Revolucionario Cubano was formed.

In March he published the first issue of Patria, the last and most successful newspaper he founded.

On April 8, Marti was elected Delegado of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.

Throughout 1893 and 1894 he continued to travel around the U.S. and the Caribbean to raise support for the cause of Cuban independence.

In 1895, on January 10th, a carefully planned armed expedition that was about to strike out for Cuba from Fernandina Beach, Floria, was stopped by U.S. authorities, who seized the expedition's three ships, along with all the supplies and weapons onboard.

On February 7th - Marti arrived in Montecristi, Dominican Republic, where he joined General Maximo Gomez. Cuba's third war of independence began with the Grito de Baire (Cry of Baire).

On March 25th with Gomez, Marti drafted and signed the Montecristi Mainfesto. Soon after, Marti, Gomez, and four other men arrived clandestinely in Cuba at La Playita.

On the 18th of May, Marti charged headlong into Spanish troops and was killed in battle,

On April 25, 1898, the U.S. declared War against Spain in Cuba.

Cuban independence from Spain was granted in 1898, at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War