José Martí said: "On the world's ugliness, relief is sought in women, who is in the world the most concrete and kind form of beauty."
For Martí, all contact with women, whatever the circumstance, was a good opportunity to "take refuge from the world's ugliness" because for him they constituted "the most concrete and kind form of beauty". He considered that they were the nobility of man and referred to how they should be treated. His gallantry with the ladies and the pleasure he received, made him assure that frequently after talking to a woman he would make verses.
In Jose Marti's book La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age), the Apostle clearly highlights the need for girls, future women, to be instructed so that they can be the ideal companions of men. He recognizes that girls possess a special subtlety to understand delicate and tender things.
An important element in José Martí's life was the relationship with his mother and sisters. The pain he felt for the death of one of them (Ana) was enormous. "The earth loved her like the morning loves the children. She was my sister of the Sun, and she was my sister," he writes in a poignant poem titled "My parents are asleep".
In the work of José Martí, women occupy a special place. On them he wrote: "... if I lost the light, I would find it again lit in the soul of a woman".
José Martí suffered exile on several occasions. The presence of different women attenuated the pain caused by being away from his beloved homeland. In Aragon, "where he broke his corolla / the little flower of his life", was the beautiful Blanca de Montalvo, who premiered in his heart the fullness of the first love. He was passionate about feminine beauty, and surrendered to his sensuality: "A woman's kiss! "I have felt it / In a very sweet extra-lived moment".
In Mexico he was inspired by a romantic muse, Rosario de la Peña, and also by the beautiful Mexican actress Concha Padilla, on whose lips he had put the female character of ''Amor con amor se paga''. The love that he dedicated to Carmen, his wife, was imbued with the deepest lyricism. A powerful torrent of feeling leads him to this woman with whom he was linked throughout his life.
Marti's generosity to women was something innate. At partieshe used to dance with those girls who did not have a partner because they were less attractive. When María Mantilla, her beloved goddaughter, asked him why he was doing it, he replied: "Because nobody likes them, and it is our duty not to let them feel unhappy."
In New York, where he lived for many years during the emigration, Marti found the companion, the friend; she was, he said, the best woman he has ever met. In Carmen Miyares, the matron of the house, he recognized the fidelity that the real aristocracy was for him.
On several occasions Martí advised the daughters of Carmen, Carmita and María. "See me alive and strong and loving more than ever the companions of my loneliness, the medicine of my bitterness". He persuaded them, cautiously, to love what is really worthwhile and to cultivate friendships with merit and purity similar to theirs.