SOURCE: An Introduction to Major Poems, by José Martí, edited by Philip S. Foner, translated by Elinor Randall, Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1982, pp. 1-21.

The editor of most English-language editions of Martí's work, Foner has written many essays on Martí's life and writings. In the essay that follows, Foner focuses on Martí's career as a poet, declaring that his "verses announce the birth of a new era in Latin American poetry."

José Julián Martí y Pérez, "The Apostle" of Cuba, was born on January 28, 1853, in a humble two-story house on Paula Street in Havana. His father, Mariano Martí y Navarro, the son of a poor ropemaker in Valencia, Spain, had come to Havana as a sergeant in the Spanish army, married a girl from Spain, Leonor Pérez y Cabera, and decided to remain in Cuba, hoping to find a better life for...