José Martí Pérez Fonds

Given that José Martí is considered one of the most important Latin American politicians and think-ers of the 19th century, his journalistic, diplomatic and political work acquires a transcendental dimension. The defence of the political and economic independence of Cuba and Latin America in spheres as diverse as diplomacy and journalism, at a decisive moment in the formation and consolidation of the Latin American republics in the face of the change in the correlation of forces in the world arena, and the emergence of new industrial and military powers on the international scene, make his writings a primary source of knowledge on the socio-political events of his time.As the main Cuban ideologist of the independence movement, Martí stands out for having prepared and organized the last stage of the fight against Spanish colonialism in America, at a time character-ized by the decline of Spain as a world power and the arrival of the United States of America as a new economic, military and political metropolis, after its victory in the Spanish-Cuban-American war. In his well-known essay, Our America, Martí proposes the most thorough 19th century definition of the ‘Latin American’, by singling it out as a continental reality on the basis of the formation of a truly autochthonous discourse. Martí is considered a pioneer of modernism, the first authentically Latin American artistic and cultural movement. This archive provides insights into the creative process of his chronicles and poems. Despite the fact that his work is mostly disperse, this archive has the largest number of original documents known: 2,418, most of them manuscripts or period prints, in addition to letters received and sent by him, a compilation of his journalistic writings and the first editions of his works.