Painting with words: the modernist ekphrasis in José Martí's La Exposición de París

Abstract: This essay analyzes the literary articulation of ekphrastic procedures in the chronicle “La Exposición de París,” published by José Martí in the children’s magazine La Edad de Oro (1889). Drawing on the conceptual framework of ekphrasis and periegesis, it demonstrates how the author, during his exile in the United States (1880–1895), shaped a narrative with a strong testimonial effect without having been physically present at the event. Through the critical appropriation of secondary sources, such as catalogs and both national and international press, Martí strategically deployed rhetorical devices like enargeia and hypotyposis to construct a political-pedagogical tour of anticolonial resistance, characterized by a striking descriptive vividness. The examination of this narrative, guided by a narrator-cicerone, leads to the conclusion that the ideological and formative power of the account is invigorated through the harmonious use of these discursive resources. Keywords: José Martí; La Exposición de París; Ekphrasis; Periegesis; Enárgeia.