Cubans admired the U.S. as a free nation



Martí did oppose U.S. involvement in the War for Independence, and he did observe that while Cubans admired the U.S. as a free nation, they distrusted the U.S.’s materialism. Yet, this is not the whole story. Martí’s prolific writings paint a varied view of the U.S., where he lived for eleven years. He was a resident of New York City when immigrants lived and worked in the most terrible conditions and when child labor was common. He could not know that many children of immigrants would become doctors, writers, lawyers, great entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and presidents. He had no way of knowing that laws and unions would later improve the lot of U.S. workers including immigrants and their children. Thus, Martí referred to the hardship of the immigrants in New York City as being the result of “the evils of capitalism”and seemed to fail to see that capitalism in itself was not evil. (What one chooses to do with capitalism can be evil.)

To be continued.

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Dania Rosa Nasca
June 4, 2016