#3 entry- Jose Marti center

Cuba and our first day of lectures at the Centro de Estudios Martianos or the Jose Marti Center.

 I thought I would show you a couple of the cars that passed us on the way!

The pink car--Mary Kay?

     Our first lecture is about Cuba's National hero Jose Marti (1853-1895) . This man was a progressive thinker and believed in the independence for Cuba. " a Cuban patriot" freedom fighter and a poet.
      He was a talented artist but soon found that he liked writing instead.  His writing got him in trouble and at the age of 16, he was convicted of treason and sedition and was sentenced to 6 years of hard labor.
      During his time in prison his legs were damaged from the shackles and he had to have 2 operations to help correct the damage done. His sentence was reduced but he was exiled to Spain where he studied law. and the classics traveling to France and England.
      In 1875, Jose left for Mexico and Guatemala and continued to write and work as a professor of literature. In Guatemala he met his wife, Carmen Zayas Bazan.  They returned to Cuba for one year in 1878 but he was exiled to Spain again leaving his wife and child there.
     He quickly moved to New York City. These years were very important years in his life. He wrote volumes of poems and tried to raise support for the independence of Cuba.
      In  1884 he returned to Cuba to start a revolution but the expedition failed and the next year he was killed in one of the first confrontations. After more uprising, Cuba wasn't able to be free from Spain till after the Spanish American War of 1898. Cuba finally became independent from the US in 1902.
There is much I have left out in his travels and studies and it will be fun for you to look him up as he was a very determined man.

So Jose Marti became Cuba's national hero with his one goal from the age of sixteen to have democracy without slavery.

Our classroom which is in the center.  A bust of Jose Marti sits in the corner.  Our interpreter is standing on the left. 

They had this beautiful chandelier of Venetian glass above our heads.
The hall also had a portrait of Simon Bolivar hanging. Jose had gone to Venezuela to visit him during his quest of wanting Cuba free.

Some of our students visiting with the curator and historian on Jose Marti.

Coffee break which consisted of espresso, tea and a cookie/ biscuit of some kind.  Some of the students learned to drink espresso. David and I had learned in Italy and he isn't a coffee drinker.  The trick is to add one sugar!

                                         A pretty statue at the end of the porch.
We are off to our next adventure.
Ciao