José María Heredia y Heredia,éMarí also known as José María Heredia y Campuzano (December 31, 1803 – May 7, 1839) was a Cuban-born poet considered by many to be the first romantic poet of the Americas and the initiator of Latin American romanticism. More recently, this view has been qualified, highlighting Heredia's roots in Neoclassicism and the aesthetics of eighteenth-century Sensibility. He is known as "El Cantor del Niagara" and regarded as one of the most important poets in the Spanish language. He has also been named National Poet of Cuba.
Heredia studied at the University of Havana, and received a law degree in 1823. In the autumn of 1823 he was arrested on a charge of conspiracy against the Spanish government for participating in pro-independence activities against the Spanish authorities, and was sentenced to banishment for life. To avoid the sentence, Heredia fled to the United States and spent two years in New York City when he was 19. He then took refuge in Mexico in 1825. For a few months he was one of the editors of the literary magazine El Iris. He became naturalized as a citizen of Mexico and obtained a post as magistrate.
Many of his earlier pieces are merely clever translations from French, English and Italian; but his originality is placed beyond doubt by such poems as the Himno del desterrado, the epistle to Emilia, Desengaños, and the celebrated ode to Niágara. One of his most celebrated poems was called "En El Teocalli de Cholula," which explores the universality of nature and immense beauty of indigenous ruins. In common with a number of Spanish and Latin American Romantics, his intellectual formation was in Neoclassicism, and indeed his poetry is notable for its perfection of form as well as (often) the sincerity and depth of his feelings. Heredia published a first edition of his poems (Poesías) during his stay in New York, in 1825, to great acclaim both in the Americas and in Western Europe. Andrés Bello (from his exile in London) and Alberto Lista (from Spain) acknowledged the precociousness of Heredia, praising the originality and freshness of his poetry. A significantly expanded second collection, that included revised versions of many of the poems found in the earlier edition, saw the light in Toluca in 1832, also published by Heredia himself. In 1836 he obtained permission to visit Cuba for two months to reunite with his mother. Disappointed in his political ambitions, and broken in health, Heredia returned to Mexico in January 1837, and died in Mexico City on 7 May 1839.
Childhood
José María Heredia was born in Santiago de Cuba on December 31, 1803, to parents José Francisco Heredia Mieses and Mercedes Heredia Campuzano-Polanco natives of Santo Domingo. As a young boy in Cuba, he learned how to read and write Latin and Greek and translated famous works such as Homer, Horace, and other classical authors and texts. He spent the majority of his upbringing in Santo Domingo for his family moved there when he was still a small child. His father was appointed Magistrate at the Court of Caracas, and the family moved to Venezuela because of his job.
Middle Years
He returned to Cuba from Venezuela in 1818 and then registered at the University of Havana at the young age of 14. He did not stay at the University of Havana long; he continued his career the following year in Mexico. The death of his father, José Francisco Heredia, in 1820 caused his son José María to return to Cuba the following year from Mexico.