In 1865 , he enrolled in the Escuela de Instrucción Primaria Superior Municipal de Varones that was headed by Rafael María de Mendive . Mendive was influential in the development of Martí 's political philosophies . Also instrumental in his development of a social and political conscience was his best friend Fermín Valdés Domínguez , the son of a wealthy slave-owning family . In April the same year , after hearing the news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln , Martí and other young students expressed their pain — through group mourning — for the death of a man who had decreed the abolition of slavery in the United States . In 1866 , Martí entered the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza where Mendive financed his studies
assassination
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
José Martí