Born in Cuba in Jan 28 1853 Jose Marti was involved in anti (Spanish) colonial activities from an early age. in 1869 he was up before the beak for the first time, getting six years of hard labour. He was shortly deported to Spain.
in 1878 he was able to return to Cuba under a general amnesty at the end of the first war of independence. Although trained as a lawyer he was not allowed to practice and through his opinioned writings ended up deported to Spain again in 1879. From there he travelled and ended up in New York writing for a bunch of South American papers before returning to Cuba on April 11th 1895 along with Maximo Gomez and four others to launch the second Cuba war of independence.
On May 19th 1895 Jose Marti was killed in a fire fight with the Spanish at Dos Rios on the Cuato River. The Cubans went on almost to victory before the Americans decied to prop up the regime some three years later.
Jose Marti is now remembered as a Cuban hero, a visionary and social activist, and of course for the poem 'Versos Sencillos' which were the basis for the lyrics of possibly the most famous Cuban Song 'Guantanamera'.
Viva Cuba Libre !