José Martí · Politics

The Monster and the Republic: Martí Against Empire

Martí’s lifelong warning, sharpened by fourteen years living inside the United States, that a Cuba freed from Spain only to fall under North American economic and territorial control would have traded one empire for another - and his last, unfinished letter naming that as the true purpose of his final campaign.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Martí saw Cuban independence as urgent not only against Spain but as a barrier against United States expansion into the Antilles, that he called for Latin American unity as defense against a much larger northern power, and that his unfinished last letter to Manuel Mercado names impeding that expansion…

Leads to Simón Bolívar.

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