Heredia, José María

Heredia, José María (hōsā` märē`ä ārā`thēä), 1803–39, Cuban journalist and poet. He is considered the most lyrical of the poets writing during the period of the wars of independence. Although Heredia's poetry is classic in form, it is imbued with romantic melancholy and joy in nature. His subjectiveness and passionate nature appear in his two best-known poems, "On the Teocalli of Cholula" (written 1820) and "Niagara" (written 1824). Exiled from Cuba as a revolutionary (1823), he spent two years in New York City, where he published his poems, and spent the rest of his life in Mexico. He was a cousin of the French poet Heredia.