Brief Summary Of Our America By Jose Marti

Jose Marti was born in 1853 in Havana to a Spanish father and mother, Mariano Marti and Leonor Perez. His father was involved in minor government posts for most of his life after coming to Cuba with the Spanish army. Marti began growing his revolutionary policies at a young age, as the director of his school, Rafael Maria de Mendive strongly believed in Cuba’s right to independence from Spain. Much of Cuba’s population had become dissatisfied with the Spanish rule. The Cubans felt the taxations imposed on them by the Spanish were unfair and they resented the how they were treated by the Spaniards sent to Cuba for their superior attitude. This eventually led to the Ten Years’ War. Marti then wrote criticisms of the Spanish rule which caused

Marti eventually made it back to Cuba but this was after 50,000 Cuban lives had been lost to the Ten Years’ War. The war ended with Cuba still under Spanish rule. Marti was once again deported, this time to New York City, for his involvement in an uprising known as “La Guerra Chiquita.” In New York he became president of the Cuban Revolutionary Committee where he organized the manpower and materials needed for a final, successful Cuban revolution. He then wrote “Our America” and other essays. In “Our America” Marti warns the Latin American people of the ferocity and greed of U.S. imperialism and the U.S. politicians’ ignorance toward the Latin American people. Throughout the essay Marti preaches tolerance, justice, and respect while attempting to maintain Cuba’s

He saw that the uneducated were taking control, while the educated were only being taught about foreign nations and not how to manage their own. “How can our Universities prepare men to govern when not one of them teaches anything either about the art of government or local conditions?” (Marti p.1) Marti strongly believed that a nation should be its own. He wanted Cuba to be free from Spanish rule, while also fearing becoming a part of the Americas’ new nations and losing its identity. “The new nations look about, acknowledge each other. They ask, ‘who are we?’” (p. 1). Marti wanted to prevent Cuba’s culture from being pushed out by the other nations’ cultures. Marti knew that the Monroe Doctrine showed that the U.S. could take control of Cuba and wanted to position Cuba as an independent nation. Describing an ideal Latin American community of friendly neighbors interacting with one another, building a common identity upon their shared history and liberating the continent from both European and North American intervention is Marti’s overall goal in the essay. In doing so he also gives a negative picture of the two intruders which is a way of dissociating Latin America from any foreign influence and puts forth his ideas on how to create the ideal culture in