1882-1890

After a stay of several months in Venezuela that came to an end when his insistence on speaking his mind got him ejected from yet another country, Marti returned to New York, which would become his home base for the rest of his life. There he published his first volume of poetry and embarked upon a career as U.S. correspondent for a number of Latin American newspapers. The resulting cumulation of articles, with their detailed description, analysis, and critique of virtually every aspect of the young nation, would become one of the major facets of his lifework and one of the nineteenth century’s most telling commentaries on democracy in the United States.

By consistently viewing the United States from the pan-Latin American perspective that was required for articles that were often reprinted in newspapers across the hemisphere, Marti used his “Letters from New York” not only to give Latin Americans a more complex and realistic view of the United States, but also to promote his ideal of Latin American unity. At the same time, he remained a leading figure in the Cuban exile community and-except for a period in the mid-1880s-continued to be very actively involved as a leader in the ongoing efforts to gain Cuban independence.