A much-quoted neoclassical poet, best known for his ode Al Niágara, written in 1824 after a visit to the waterfall. Other well-known poems include En el Teocalli de Cholula (1820), El Himno del desterrado, and A Emilia. His dramatic works include Eduardo IV, o el usurpador clemente (1819), Moctezuma, o los mexicanos, and El campesino espantado. He is alo known for his works in French. Born in Santiago de Cuba, the son of a Spanish official who had fled Tousssaint L’Ouveture’s invasion of Santo Domingo, he graduated from the University of Havana Law School to become the most famous member of the anti-Spanish conspiracy Rayos y Soles de Bolivar.
It was presumable Heredia’s fame that persuaded Governor Vives to commute his death penalty to perpetual exile, which he began in New York (where he published much of his work), but then, from 1825, spent in Mexico, where he continued to be active against Spanish rule in Cuba. He returned in November 1836, only to be forced back into exile within three months. He died of tuberculosis in Toluca, Mexico.
His Obras poéticas appeared in 1875, to be followed by an edition called Poesías completas in 1940-41 (2v) and another edited in Miami in 1970 by Ángel Aparicio Laurencio (425p).
