When the Ten Years' War broke out in 1868, José Martí was only 15 years old but already deeply committed to the cause of Cuban independence, to which he would dedicate his life. By 1895 Martí had become the figurehead of the Cuban struggle against Spanish rule. He was a poet and intellectual and political activist, combining arms and letters in the classical manner: one entry from his 1895 war diary reads: ‘I tuck the Life of Cicero into the same pocket where I'm carrying fifty bullets.’ This war diary has long been regarded as a national treasure, the final and perhaps the key work of its author, who is himself a national hero of almost unimaginable proportions. Along with the author's status, the circumstances in which the text was produced have lent it almost religious significance, at least in Cuba. Martí was the Nelson Mandela of his day, widely revered within Latin America and by exiled Cubans within the USA. He was expected to become the first president of an independent Cuba. He did not need to fight, but in 1895 he insisted on being among the first boatload of exiles to sail to Oriente alongside Máximo Gómez to join the struggle for independence.