January 2026 – This January 28th, on the 173rd anniversary of the birth of José Julián Martí Pérez, the National Hero of Cuba, journalist Yamicela Núñez Armas presents the following Chronicle, narrated by Maribel Nogueira Urrelis.
There are men who do not die the day their body falls, but rather begin to live in another way; José Martí is one of them. He does not lie only in the pages of books or in busts in parks; Martí walks, observes, and asks questions. He walks with the people he dreamed of as free.
He was short in stature, they say, but immense in thought. It was enough to hear him speak to understand that an entire nation fit within his voice. A child of colonial suffering, he learned early on that freedom is not begged for: it is won with pure ideas and profound sacrifices.
From a young age, he knew that his destiny would not be easy; He chose prison, exile, and solitude rather than renounce his principles.
Martí was a poet when tenderness was needed, a journalist when denunciation was urgent, a teacher when the future demanded foundations, and a revolutionary when the homeland called out with a voice of urgency. He never separated words from actions. That is why his pen wounded the enemy as much as the machete of the Cuban independence fighter. That is why he wrote with love and fought without hatred.
In exile, he learned to look at Cuba with nostalgia, but also with responsibility. He organized, he warned, he united. He knew that a divided revolution was doomed, and that is why he dedicated his energy to uniting wills, smoothing over differences, and sowing awareness. He feared foreign domination as much as his own mistakes; that is why he spoke of a Republic “with all and for the good of all.”
Today, his thought continues to be a compass. It is present in the school that educates, in the doctor who serves, in the young person who defends their ideas with respect, in the journalist who seeks the truth without selling it. Martí is not a cold statue: he is a constant question, a moral imperative, a root.
Every time Cuba looks at itself honestly, Martí is reborn. And as long as there is injustice to fight and dignity to defend, José Martí will continue riding, eternal, alongside his people.
