José María Heredia

Heredia was and is called the "national poet" of Cuba, although in reality he lived almost his entire life away from his beloved Island.

His father was a judicial official of the crown, so the writer's childhood took place in Santo Domingo, Florida, Havana, Caracas, and Mexico. Still a child, he moved with his family to Santo Domingo where he spent most of his childhood. His father was appointed Oidor in the Audience of Caracas, and the family relocated to Venezuela. In 1818, back in Cuba, he began his studies in Law at the University of Havana, a career he continued the following year in Mexico. After the death of his father José Francisco Heredia in October 1820 (he was assassinated in Mexico), in 1821 José María returned to Cuba.

Two years after obtaining his doctorate in law, he established himself as a lawyer in Matanzas. By this time he had contributed to various newspapers, among them El Revisor, and he directed the weekly La Biblioteca de las Damas. In 1823, when he was about to publish an edition of his poems, he became involved in the Conspiracy "Soles y Rayos de Bolívar" and had to leave hastily for the United States.

His life in the United States was extensively documented in his correspondence, among others, with Domingo del Monte, published by the Revista de Cuba. The first edition of his verses appeared in 1825, in New York.

In 1825 he undertook his second trip to Mexico and during the voyage he wrote his Himno del desterrado. His activity in Mexico was rich and varied. Among other legal and administrative functions in Mexico, he served as a professor of Literature and History, legislator, judge of Cuernavaca, as well as oidor and prosecutor of the Audience of Mexico.

In 1832 he published in Toluca a second edition of his verses, considerably revised and enlarged. He was editor of several journals, El Iris, La Miscelánea, and principal editor of El Conservador.

In 1836, after making a public retraction of his independence ideals, he obtained permission to return to Cuba. His stay on the island lasted four months. With great sorrow and mortal discouragement, he returned to Mexico, where President Guadalupe Victoria offered him asylum. At thirty-five years old, he died of tuberculosis, which he contracted in the United States, on May 7, 1839 in the city of Toluca, Mexico.

Heredia is considered one of the best Cuban poets, and has been given the title of National Poet as well as "Singer of Niagara" for his ode Niágara. Heredia is a distinguished representative of the pre-Romantic school. Some of his works are extraordinary descriptive compositions where he expresses his fine and rapid perception of nature. In them he presents us with one of his great characteristics: the spiritual sense of the physical landscape.

He died in Toluca, Mexico.

Poetic Work
To my wife
Lovelessness
To my horse
Hymn of the Exiled
Death of the Bull
In a Tempest
Hymn to the Sun
Niagara
On the Teocalli of Cholula
To Popocatépetl