José Martí (1853-1895) was a poet, essayist, journalist, and political theorist who wrote about the newly independent nations that arose as a result of the Latin American Wars of Independence in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is considered a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In this excerpt from Martí's essay "Our America," he discusses the evolution of leadership in Latin American countries and his hopes for the future. Written originally in Spanish, the essay uses the word "America" to refer to all of the Latin American nations.