José Julián Martí y Pérez

Martí was ignored in Cuba until Radio Martí started broadcasting in 1983 under Reagan. Then some in the Cuban government decided to co-opt this phenomenon, forgetting that Martí was strongly anti-socialist. The ill-read folks in Miami apparently don't know this either, or they would use it to their advantage as Cuba is awash in the glorification of Martí.

José Martí is considered the father of his country, except that he never really lived much in Cuba and when he did come into Cuba for the 2nd War of Liberation in 1895, he refused to listen to what the black commander of the Liberation Army, Antonio Maceo, was telling him and went and got himself needlessly killed. Maceo told him he was better off coordinating international aid for the rebels out of New York as he did not have the skills needed to be a soldier. 

Some AfroCubans, such as Leida Oquendo, have presented Martí as an antiracist, which is perhaps only partially true, as can be seen in his description of his visit to Curaçao (see José Martí and Racism: His Visit to Curaçao by Eugene Godfried). Martí was patriarchal, he conceived of the feminine as irrational and instinctive. His principal philosophical descendant in the 20th century, Enrique José Varona, was frankly racist and thought  men superior in intellect. In response to all this mysoginist fervor, we can only point to Mariana Grajales Coello, mother of Antonio Maceo and “Mother of the Cuban Nation.” 

Perhaps Martí's worse legacy is that of his son.

Martí's son: José Francisco Martí y Zayas-Bazán

Martí had one legitimate son, José Francisco Martí y Zayas-Bazán, who was a captain in the Army of Liberation, and later in 1912 turned on his former comrades in the Independents of Color and led a band of vigilante "volunteers" to exterminate them. After the massacre, the government and big business held a celebratory banquet in Central Park, Havana, which was presided over by Francisco Martí right under his father's statue and attended by many of the troops involved.  Francisco lived until 1947 and his house in Havana has been turned into the seat of the  Centro de Estudios Jose Marti under Armando Hart, a former Minister of Culture who was sacked in the wake of his conflict with Pablo Milanes in which he is said to have displayed open racism.

Revered on both sides of the Florida Straights by the Ibero-Spanish Cubans, Martí is discussed to the exclusion of the man who really lead the Mambi Army to victory, Antonio Maceo, perpetuating the racism in Cuban culture.