Nuestra America

Modernismo can best be defined as ‘a movement in Spanish literature that had its beginning in Latin America. It was paramount in the last decade of the 19th cent. and the first decade of the 20th cent.’ Although the movement didn't become known as a cultural phenomenon until authors such as Jose Martí and Rubén Darió made it famous, the idea of modernismo started about two centuries earlier. From 1620 onwards the world entered a period of enlightenment, where the idea of God being the center of the world was taken over by science,industrialisation and people started thinking beyond what they knew.

A wide range of elements were described as modernist for instance ‘loss, love,cycle fragmentation,lust, Social evill….’In Rubén Darío’s work including his collection of poems ‘Cantos de vida y esperanza’ and ‘Azul’ he introduces these elements of Modernismo, his focus being mainly on erotism, exoticism, civil and social issues. Jose Martí’s essay ‘Nuestra America’ also contains many elements of modernismo these are reflected in his writing style. Such as through the use of

He does consider the progress as paramount whilst expressing the idea that this could lead to adoration of volatile qualities such as beauty and wealth. Jose Martí wishes for his people, the cubans, to rise through intelligence as well as moral qualities which he considers to be noble. This is what Martí refers to as the “Hombre natural”being the role model he wishes his people to be contrasts with the idea of the “Hombre artificial” and the “ Frock- Coated Parisian” over involved with himself and preoccupied by futile desires. However he also pushes for nationalism throughout his essay, in Latin America but even more specifically in his home country, Cuba, even though he never explicitly says the name of this country.. This is suggested from the title “Nuestra