Marti's influence as a writer in Latin America was almost as great as the one he had as a statesman. An extraordinarily innovative poet and prose writer, he contributed effectively to modernizing Latin American literature, linguistically and thematically. Through his journalistic writings Marti was tremendously influential in shaping the notion of a distinct Latin America as well as in predicting the United States' imperialistic tendencies regarding those countries. Revered in Cuba, Marti, more than any other patriot, stirred nationalistic feelings necessary to organize the war that finally secured Cuba's independence from Spain. It is by far the best collection of essays about one of the most significant and least understood thinkers of nineteenth-century Latin America.
Some essays are simply extraordinary.
They give a good sense of the complexities, contradictions, and passion with which Jose Marti engaged in literary pursuits and politics. It is fascinating to take a thinker of Marti's stature who wrote over one hundred years ago and insert his perspective in the context of our present-day issues. I don't know of any other collection of Marti studies that achieves this goal as strongly. This collection contains some bold and innovative work.