In a biography published by Marti in El Porvenir, New York, 1891, he said:
“(…) the man in love with beauty, both in literature as in things of life
and never wrote but the truth from the bottom of his heart or of sorrows
of the homeland”.

Law and Philosophy Graduate, Mendive traveled to Europe in the 1840’s and
when he returned to Cuba in 1852, he joined the Sociedad Económica de
Amigos del País (Economic Society Friends of the Country) and was
collaborator of publications like Guirnalda Cubana, Habanera Magazine,
Album de lo Bueno y lo Bello, Correo de la Tarde and Diario of Havana.

He worked in the Cuban Territorial Credit Society for a period of ten
years, where he was separated by certain elements and then founded several
of the main publications of the time like Revista de la Habana (1853-1857).

Referring to poetry, Mendive’s main student characterized his verses as
“swift and warm”, and his first book, Pasionarias, dating back to 1848 was
registered in Cuba’s second romantic generation.

He was named Director of the Men’s Municipal Higher Institute in 1864 to
which Jose Marti enrolled in 1865. Mendive immediately turned into his
spiritual father and when Don Mariano Marti was unemployed, Mendive paid
his student’s tuition until the 12th grade.

Many of the ethical concepts of Marti’s ideas were taught by Mendive: love
for freedom, pride, dignity, prestige, justice, concern for the humble and
purity in their thinking.
Marti’s teacher was incarcerated during five months in Castillo del
Principe accused of turning his house into a meeting point for patriotic
meetings after the bloody massacre provoked by the force of volunteers, on
January 22nd, 1860, in the Villanueve Theater.

The war council deported him to Spain. Afterwards he moved to New York
where he continued his independence activism and of which his son Luis
lost his life.

He returned to Cuba after the signing of the Zanjon Pact and published his
third edition of poems in 1883.

During the last years of his life, Rafael Maria de Mendive directed the
San Luis Gonzaga School, in Matanzas. He was transferred to Havana due to
sickness where he passed away on November 24th, 1886.

Homage in honor of Mendive was held on December 20th of that year with the
participation of eminent figures of Cuban Culture of the time.