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161 books match the query 'Cuba' and 2 start with j

cover of José Martí: A Revolutionary Life

José Martí

A Revolutionary Life

By Alfred J. López

University of Texas Press, 2014

José Martí (1853–1895) was the founding hero of Cuban independence. In all of modern Latin American history, arguably only the “Great Liberator” Simón Bolívar rivals Martí in stature and legacy. Beyond his accomplishments as a revolutionary and political thinker, Martí was a giant of Latin American letters, whose poetry, essays, and journalism still rank among the most important works of the region. Today he is revered by both the Castro regime and the Cuban exile community, whose shared veneration of the “apostle” of freedom has led to his virtual apotheosis as a national saint.

In José Martí: A Revolutionary Life, Alfred J. López presents the definitive biography of the Cuban patriot and martyr. Writing from a nonpartisan perspective and drawing on years of research using original Cuban and U.S. sources, including materials never before used in a Martí biography, López strips away generations of mythmaking and portrays Martí as Cuba’s greatest founding father and one of Latin America’s literary and political giants, without suppressing his public missteps and personal flaws. In a lively account that engrosses like a novel, López traces the full arc of Martí’s eventful life, from his childhood and adolescence in Cuba, to his first exile and subsequent life in Spain, Mexico City, and Guatemala, through his mature revolutionary period in New York City and much-mythologized death in Cuba on the battlefield at Dos Ríos. The first major biography of Martí in over half a century and the first ever in English, José Martí is the most substantial examination of Martí’s life and work ever published.

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cover of José Martí’s Liberative Political Theology

José Martí’s Liberative Political Theology

Miguel A. De La Torre

Vanderbilt University Press, 2021

José Martí's Liberative Political Theology argues that Martí's religious views, which at first glance might appear outdated and irrelevant, are actually critical to understanding his social vision. During a time in which the predominant philosophical view was materialistic (e.g., Darwin, Marx), Martí sought to reconcile social and political trends with the metaphysical, believing that ignoring the spiritual would create a soulless approach toward achieving a liberative society. As such, Martí used religious concepts and ideas as tools that could bring forth a more just social order. In short, this book argues Martí could be considered a precursor to what would come to be called liberation theology.

Miguel De La Torre has authored the most comprehensive text written thus far concerning Martí's religious views and how they affected his political thought. The few similar texts that exist are written in Spanish, and most of them romanticize Martí's spirituality in an attempt to portray him as a “Christian believer.” Only a handful provide an academic investigation of Martí's theological thought based solely on his writings, and those concentrate on just one aspect of Martí's religious influences. José Martí's Liberative Political Theology allows for mutual influence between Martí's political and religious views, rather than assuming one had precedence over the other.
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