New York was mother of exiles long before Emma Lazarus bestowed that accolade on the Statue of Liberty. Some merely sought respite from the struggle. Giuseppe Garibaldi, between commanding the armies of the revolutionary Roman Republic in 1848 and the unification of Italy in 1860, spent a quiet year or so in Rosebank, Staten Island. Many Latin American revolutionaries also spent time in New York: the father of Cuban independence, Jose MartÃ, for instance, whose dashing features now adorn rum advertisements.
In the late spring of 1866, one might have met another Latin American exile—a lesser man but a more successful politician—limping up Broadway Read More
