Political reflections of José Martí

We have made this selection of Political Reflections by José Martí with texts written over more than twenty years of his life. Here Martí analyzes the Spanish Republic and its colonial pretensions.
Our author questions the excessive protectionism of the State and its negative influence on public activity. It analyzes the relations between Latin America and the United States and the virtues and shortcomings of Karl Marx. Also here are gathered some of his most important reflections on the situation of Cuba during the nineteenth century.
José Martí’s Political Reflections were an essential part of his life. In one of his last letters to his friend and executor Gonzalo de Quesada insists, once again, on his contempt for most of his literary work. Martí subordinated everything to sacrifice for his homeland and in this politics was the primary resource.

The Spanish Republic before the Cuban Revolution
Madrid, February 15, 1873
Glory and triumph are but an encouragement to the fulfillment of duty. In the practical life of ideas, power is nothing but respect for all manifestations of justice, the firm will before all the advice of cruelty or pride. “And when the observance of justice disappears, and the fulfillment of duty is unknown, infamy involves triumph and glory, foolish and hateful life lives power.
A man of good will, I salute the Republic that triumphs, I greet it today as I will curse it tomorrow when a Republic suffocates another Republic, when a free people at last compresses the freedoms of another people, when a nation that explains itself to be so, subjugates and subdues another nation that has to prove that it wants to be so. “If the freedom of tyranny is tremendous, the tyranny of freedom is repugnant, shuddering, frightening.

Fragment of the work