José Martí′s Our America Literary Analysis Essay

Latin America as described by José Martí is “Our America''. Within his literature, he has brought Latin America growth and development. Martí wants the people to be proud of who they are and where they come from. Especially as his home in Cuba. Culture is key in a society's life because of how diverse and unique it is. Latin America’s diversity is spectacular in a tremendous way and has a unique character of its own. Latin America is not the same as the United States, as Martí's essay is called “Our America”. Martí has a distinct choice of words and ideas that pushes for his people to strive into a world of persistence and courage to come together. His sense of pride brings this essay to life.

Martí comes together at the beginning of his essay to tell the people to not be lazy, to get up and be ready. “These are not times for lying comfortably in bed. Like Juan de Castellanos’  men, we must have no other pillow but our weapons—weapons of the mind, which vanquish all others. Fortifications built of ideas are more valuable than those built of stone” (Marti, para.1). As they need to defend their land, he wants them to understand their culture and history. Martí doesn’t want them to imitate others' culture and ideas (Spain's ways), he wants them to create their own. Due to the fact, there was such a great influence on Europeans on the people of Latin America, Marti doesn’t want them to forget who they are and to not imitate others. They need to understand that something is happening and not pretend that nothing is going on around them.

 Cuba during this time of Martí and its relationship to the United States was a time of struggle of becoming independent from Europe. In 1868-1878, Cuba struggled for independence and freedom from Spain, known as the Ten Year War. Since imperialists took over, this was a hard way for Cuba to have an effective government. “The natural man, strong and indignant, comes and overthrows an authority accumulated from books because that authority isn’t administered in keeping with the manifest needs of the country. To know is to solve. To know the country and govern it in accordance with that knowledge is the only way to free it from tyranny” (Marti, para. 6). To have an effective government, I believe Marti was trying to say that they need a natural man who knows this place, this culture, and someone who is from there to understand what they need as a nation and for its people. As the United States did help Cuba not be a territory of Europe, Marti had a feeling that this was a way for the United States to take over the rest of Latin America as a way of expansion of land. In 1892, he founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party to gain independence for Cuba.

In this essay, Marti is trying to accomplish a way of telling Cuba to get up. Now is not a time to sit around and make it seem like everything is fine. Within the essay, he uses literary devices to have the reader imagine and think. He uses imagery, tone, metaphor, symbolism, and so on. For example, he uses metaphors such as a tiger and an octopus. The tiger represents the United States and the octopus represents imperialism. His ideas are still important in today’s Cuban society because the people will have a gateway of some sort to know to stay as who they are and to not be ashamed. As Cuba is very important to Martí, Cubans, or Latin America as a whole reading this essay of his will show how prideful he is and why it was so important to him. I believe the people will find this a use to stay courageous and to be proud no matter how difficult something may arise. That they should stay united and be prepared.