José Martí founded Patria newspaper on March 14, 1892 aiming at organizing Cubans and Puerto Ricans abroad willing to fight for the emancipation of their people.
A few attempts had been made before aiming at disseminating independence thinking and the actions necessary to achieve the supreme purpose: To free the oppressed homeland.
The first history of journalism in Cuba dates back to 1764, when La Gaceta emerged, the first newspaper published in Cuba, followed by El Pensador. In 1790 the Papel Periódico de La Havana was published, where the first public writings of the city appeared.
With the recognition of the printing press in the Constitution of 1812 by the Spanish government, several newspapers appeared on the island. Already in 1852, Felix Varela founded the newspaper El Habanero, which brought to public light, for the first time in Havana, the independence ideals of Cubans.
On June 13, 1852, La Voz del Pueblo Cubano (The Cuban People´s Voice) was published for the first time, a newspaper founded and edited in Havana, by journalist Eduardo Facciolo, the first martyr of Cuban journalism. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes founded El Cubano Libre (The Free Cuban) on October 17, 1868, in Bayamo in the service of Cuban independence.
Patria for freedom
Martí himself, in 1869, made his first attempts in journalism with El Diablo Cojuelo and La Patria Libre. However, the newspaper with the greatest impact in the defense of libertarian ideals was Patria, considered the most important and relevant of the 19th century. IT served the Cuban Revolutionary Party in organizing the necessary war of 1895.
Hence, March 14 was chosen as Cuban Press Day, in honor of the newspaper Patria, and its founder José Martí. Today’s journalists will elevate our work in favor of the Cuban revolutionary project and in defense of the most legitimate rights of the people to higher levels, as Fidel Castro taught us.
