Our America by Jose Marti

Our America 

Our America, “…Estos tiempos no son para acostarse con el pañuelo en la cabeza, sino con las armas en la almohada,…trincheras de ideas valen más que trincheras de piedra…”, Martí calls us to wake up and start fighting for our values and identity. He knows that if Latin American does not fight for its values, then nobody can do for us what we can do for ourselves. This phrase give us the opportunity to know how important it is to be together at this time because Latin America was the ignorant continent, slavery was permitted, and our governments were not working for the people, they were working for our oppressor, or they fought each other to get power. Also, the symbolism of this phrase gives us the idea that Martí thought that education was important, because the idea of education and the rock is just the oppressor. But if Latin American has its own education and it has a lot people believing in its values then,
Latin America can defeat any enemy.

            “Éramos una visión…Éramos una mascara, con calzones de Inglaterra, el chaleco parisiense, el chaquetón de Norteamérica y la montera de España…”, our integration and independence are important parts of Our America. Martí wants to inspire our young people to fight together, and not follow our colonist culture. Be independent means, that we should have our own universities because our professors can teach about our history and culture. Also, our governments need to know about Hispanic-America, our necessities and not follow the European books, or the
U.S. books. Latin Americans need to be together because Latin American have one thing that any continent has because most of the Latin American countries speak Spanish, and we know about oppression and tyranny because for three centuries we the colonies are of the same country (
Spain). Also, Marti trying to prevent the
United States this kind of leadership so we cannot be sold to the imperialist; but it is important, that we do not fight each other because in this way we can open the door for the stranger.