Constructing National Heroes: Postcolonial Philippine and Cuban Biographies of José Rizal and José Martí

Biographies of the national heroes José Rizal and José Martí provide a useful model for evaluating shifting interests in the project of nationalism in the Philippines and Cuba respectively. Through a postcolonial evaluation of selected biographies of Rizal and Martí, this article examines the constructedness of the designation “national hero.”