Cuba: Statue of Jose Marta (1853 - 1895), poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, publisher, and often seen as the father of the Cuban nation, Parque Central, Havana. Jose Marta (1853 - 1895) is regarded as the greatest of all Cuban national heroes. He was politically active from an early age and went into exile in the United States where - after some initial exuberance at the relative personal freedom - he learned to recognise 'the entrails of the monster he was living in'. He returned to Cuba in 1895, but was killed without firing a single shot during his first skirmish with the Spanish occupiers. Nevertheless today there is a bust of Marti, the sincere man from the land of the palm tree, in every town, village and hamlet in Cuba.