page_title: José María Heredia y Heredia
section_title: Romanticism
hierarchical_section_title: José María Heredia y Heredia / Romanticism
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque dedicated to Cuban poet Jose Maria Heredia and his poem about Niagara Falls, with a view of Niagara Falls. To Niagara from the People of Cuba, 1989.
context_page_description: José María Heredia y Heredia, also known as José María Heredia y Campuzano was a Cuban-born poet considered by many to be the first romantic poet of the Americas and the initiator of Latin American romanticism. More recently, this view has been qualified, highlighting Heredia's roots in Neoclassicism and the aesthetics of eighteenth-century Sensibility. He is known as "El Cantor del Niagara" and regarded as one of the most important poets in the Spanish language. He has also been named National Poet of Cuba.
  Heredia studied at the University of Havana, and received a law degree in 1823. In the autumn of 1823 he was arrested on a charge of conspiracy against the Spanish government for participating in pro-independence activities against the Spanish authorities, and was sentenced to banishment for life. To avoid the sentence, Heredia fled to the United States and spent two years in New York City when he was 19. He then took refuge in Mexico in 1825.
  For a few months he was one of the editors of the literary magazine El Iris.
  He became naturalized as a citizen of Mexico and obtained a post as magistrate.
context_section_description: José María Heredia spent many years in exile in the United States and Mexico, away from his homeland, Cuba. Many of his poems, for he was a prominent poet, reflect a mixture of tropical sensuality and dreamy melancholy, which are often inspired by his homesickness. The force and beauty of nature and the focus on individuality emerges strongly in his poems. Latin American Romanticism contains many qualities, all of which can be found in Heredia's most popular poems. 
  "Elements in thought, style, manner that are typical of Romanticism in the humanities, and especially in literature, are: (1) a focus on the individual; (2) a dedication to personal and political liberty and freedom; (3) passion in terms of emotions and the expression of individuality that may include suffering; (4) appreciation for and treatment of new subject matters in art and ideas that include extremes such as the sublime or the ideal on the one hand and the ugly or grotesque on the other hand; (5) lyricism in music and poetry including melodramatic personal styles and melodrama in the theater or drama; (6) foregrounding of sensitivity (la sensibilidad; lo sensible) to nature, the poor and the sick, etc.; and (7) discovery or inclusion in the humanities of what traditional Latin American society, which had been dominated by culture from France, Spain, and Portugal, had been seen as exotic (i.e., coming from Asia, Oceania, or the Middle East, etc.)."
  It has been said that "if the United States had Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe, Latin America had the Cuban poet Heredia" in regards to the prominence and literary importance of his poetry. Being compared to the great [North] American writers of the Romantic Movement shows who his work was characterized by the stylings of romanticism. His Romanticism is that of the search and longing for freedom, both political and literary. To this extent, his poetry comes directly from his life.
caption: Monument to Heredia at the Niagara falls. The text "Cuban poet, exiled patriot called the sublime singer of the wonderous greatness of Niagara falls." is inscribed at the monument.
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