Martí, José Julian (1853–1895)

Cuban revolutionary. Active in the Cuban independence movement from boyhood, he was deported to Spain in 1871, returning in 1878. Exiled again for continued opposition, he fled to the USA in 1880, from where he organized resistance to Spanish rule. He was killed in battle at Dos Ríos, soon after proclaiming the uprising which led to Cuban independence.

Martí was chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Party formed 1892, and united Cubans in exile. In 1959 Fidel Castro cited him as the ‘intellectual author’ of the revolution, and he remains a national hero.