Our America

José Martí

In his text Our America, José Martí writes on Latin America and the relationship with its colonizers. He is clearly against colonization and the “exotic” man (colonizer), as he saw them of different nature and unlike natural men who were “good”. He describes colonizers as condescending with no reason to be so at all with natives. 

He describes  latin americans who seeked to be like their colonizers as traitors its people shpuld get rid of and as weak, comparing them to seven month old babies.  They are the opposite of what he thinks should be pursued, cosmopolitanism, and instead are close minded and think only of what closely surrounds them.

As a pro cosmopolitanism he insists on thinking bigger and appreciating all the different cultures but emphasizes on the importance of having countries run by its people who understand and know the country, its people, its resources, etc. Instead of having a government copied off a country they long to be. 

“La unidad del Espíritu”. He believed Latin America should be proud, stand tall and unite, not in government or states but in spirit and rise together. 

The context and discourse at this time is as important and relevant as José Martí was one of the independent movement initiators and later an inspiration for Cuba’s revolution.

I find this text very interesting because even though it was written more than 100 years ago ti still applies to what we live day to day. There will always be politicians and governors seeking their own good and not thinking about the country or the way it should be particularly run. There are always people trying to look or be European because somehow this way of thinking that they are superior or better is immersed in our society and has not gone away. 

Despite them being part of our history and us being a mixture of both, we are not Europeans and I couldn’t agree more with Martí. As latins we are all a mix of different races and cultures and it should be something to be accepted, embraced, be proud of and worked with rather than rejected.