New Orleans supported Cuban liberation from Spanish colonialism during the 1800s. As a result, a number of exiled Cubans either visited or lived in New Orleans, and some of them performed some of their organizing work here. Jose Marti was one of those revolutionaries. The plaque below the statue that sits on Jeff Davis Parkway states in Spanish: "From the Cuban exiles and their friends in Louisiana to the city of New Orleans, at the closing of the centennial year of his death fighting for the liberation of Cuba. New Orleans 28 January 1996."
