6. José Martí, Cuban Revolutionary and Poet, in Central Park

Jose Marti Cuban revolutionary poet Central Park NYC Untapped Cities

José Julián Martí Pérez (1853-1895) was influential in the Cuban War of Independence against Spain and is considered a Cuban national hero. He was a poet, a journalist, an essayist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a publisher, a professor and a political theorist. The sculpture by Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington was presented as a gift to the Cuban government for presentation to New Yorkers, but despite being completed in 1959, it wasn’t unveiled until 1965 due to the controversy about Fidel Castro’s regime.