José Martí and his documentary heritage: Patria newspaper

"Patria" (Homeland) newspaper, founded by José Martí, the greatest of all Cubans, emerged in New York on March 14, 1892, which is why Cuban Press Day was established.

To commemorate one of the significant documentary legacies left by the hero is to honor his immense work as a journalist in all fields.

His work evokes one of the most famous columnists or reporters in Latin America at that time.

Patria newspaper was published for the first time in that US city in 1892. Its last issue was 522, dated on December 31, 1898.

However, in those six years of intense journalistic work, Martí made it clear that the newspaper had to promote the purpose of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC) to achieve the total independence of Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spanish rule. The armed struggle was the way to do it.

As a renowned journalist at the time, Martí was already working for major publications such as “El Partido Liberal” in Mexico and “La Nación” in Buenos Aires.

Cuban critic José Antonio Portuondo once remarked that if Martí had been asked to fill out one of today’s long forms and had been asked to state his profession, he would have written “without doubt” journalist.

“Because that was, in short, his most constant profession (…) the work that earned his bread (…) an effective instrument of his revolutionary struggle and ideological formation. Since he began to make himself known, it was as a journalist,” Portuondo pointed out.

Of the 28 volumes that constitute his Complete Works, most of them are composed of his writings extracted from newspaper and magazine columns.

To commemorate the date of this significant publication, the Cuban Press Day has been celebrated on March 14 since the early 1990s.