El veintiocho de enero/January 28th

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Image from cubajournal.com. Click HERE. 
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... José Martí!

"Being educated is the only way to be free." - José Martí (click HERE for full UNESCO profile)

A poet, philosopher, politician, soldier, and prolific author (he even published a children's magazine!), Martí is considered a hero by many, even those on vastly different sides of an issue (see this 2016 article about Obama's visit to the Martí statue in Havana for more on this). Martí, the older brother to seven sisters, was born in Havana in 1853. In 1865, after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Martí and his friends formed a group to mourn the passing of this leader who had decreed the abolition of slavery (Martí was adamantly opposed to slavery, which still existed in Cuba under Spanish rule). When he was sixteen, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish over a letter to a friend expressing his disapproval of that friend's joining the Spanish army. He was sentenced to six years in jail, though he was eventually released and allowed to go to Spain to study. There he was active in advocating for Cuban Independence. After traveling extensively, Martí returned to Cuba, where he died in 1895 fighting for Cuban independence from the Spanish. Part of his poem Versos Sencillos was made famous by the song Guantanamera (click HERE to learn the interesting history of this song, and HERE to see Celia Cruz sing it live in 1999). Yo soy un hombre sincero/de donde crece la palma/Y antes de morirme/Quiero echar mis versos del alma (Click HERE for the poem).

For an interesting look at José Martí in History and Art (Google Arts and Culture), Click HERE.

For a lesson to use with students on Cuba and José Martí, click HERE

Other January 28th birthdays:

Carlos Slim (1940-       ): Mexican billionaire who from 2010-2013 was the richest man in the world. Read more about him in this Time magazine profile, HERE.

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