José Martí

Agora

José Martí

1853–1895

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

Latin Americans should understand and govern themselves from their own reality instead of copying European or North American models.

Placement

Latin American & Caribbean Philosophy · Latin America & Caribbean · Politics & Law, Society & History

Cuban poet and independence leader: “Our America” calls on Latin Americans to know and govern themselves from their own reality, not by imported models.

Key ideas

Our America
Self-knowledge against imitation
Anti-imperialism

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Influence

Influenced by 1

Ralph Waldo Emerson

influenced by
Martí admired Emerson’s idealism of nature and self-reliance, which he joined with republican ethics, in an essay written at Emerson’s death (‘Emerson’, 1882). J. Martí, “Emerson”, La Opinión Nacional (Caracas, 1882), in Obras completas XIII
Evidence: AI draft
Ralph Waldo Emerson › 1803–1882

Influenced 1

Leopoldo Zea

influenced
Zea took Martí’s ‘Nuestra América’ (1891), with its call to govern from one’s own reality, as a founding text of Latin American self-understanding. L. Zea, El pensamiento latinoamericano (1965); J. Martí, “Nuestra América” (1891)
Evidence: AI draft
Leopoldo Zea › 1912–2004

Criticism

Criticizes 2

Karl Marx

criticised
Reporting on the New York memorial meeting for Marx (La Nación, 1883), Martí honoured him for taking the side of the weak but objected that one does better who points to the harm and teaches a gentle remedy than one who sets people against each other. J. Martí, letter from New York of 29 March 1883, La Nación (Buenos Aires), May 1883; Obras completas IX
Evidence: AI draft
Karl Marx › 1818–1883
Herbert Spencer

criticised
Reviewing Spencer’s “The Coming Slavery” (La América, 1884), Martí granted that state socialism might create a new servitude but objected that Spencer passed over the misery of the poor and the abuses of concentrated wealth that drive people towards it. J. Martí, “Herbert Spencer. La futura esclavitud”, La América (New York), April 1884; Obras completas XV
Evidence: AI draft
Herbert Spencer › 1820–1903

Works

1891Our America
An essay calling for a Latin America that knows and governs itself from its own reality – and a warning about the power of the North.

Position

In “Our America” Martí urged the young republics of Spanish America to know their own peoples – Indigenous, Black, mestizo and rural – and to govern from that reality instead of copying European or North American models. For the old opposition of “civilisation and barbarism” he substituted that between false learning and nature: the danger is the imported intellectual, not the “natural man”. There can be no race hatred, he insisted, because there are no races; and he warned of the power and contempt of the United States. An admirer of Emerson, he joined Romantic idealism with republican ethics. He became Cuba’s national hero and a reference point for Zea.

Life & context

José Martí was born in Havana in 1853 to Spanish parents. As a teenager he was sentenced to forced labour for supporting independence and deported to Spain, where he studied law and philosophy in Zaragoza. After years in Mexico, Guatemala and Venezuela he lived from 1881 in New York as journalist and poet. In 1892 he founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party; he fell in battle at Dos Ríos in 1895.