SOURCE: "José Martí's Views on the United States," in Kentucky Foreign Language Quarterly, Vol. II, No. 4, 1955, pp. 152-59.

In the following essay, Corbitt examines Martí's mixed feelings about the United States; despite his admiration for U.S. democracy, Corbitt argues, Martí was deeply distressed by its preoccupation with wealth and material gain.

We of the United States have had at our disposal for more than half a century a candid interpretation of ourselves by a Latin American, but because it was not published in English we have failed to utilize it. The celebration in 1953 of the centenary of the birth of José Martí gave momentum to the study of his relationship to the United States, and called attention to his literary excellency.

The fourteen and a half years spent in the United States by Martí, the Cuban revolutionary leader, have borne fruit to our advantage and...