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José Martí

José Julián Martí Pérez (January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country from Spain. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was very politically active and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". From adolescence on, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt.

Born in Havana, Spanish Empire, Martí began his political activism at an early age. He traveled extensively in Spain, Latin America, and the United States, raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. His unification of the Cuban émigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. He died in military action during the Battle of Dos Ríos on May 19, 1895. Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. His written works include a series of poems, essays, letters, lectures, a novel, and a children's magazine.

He wrote for numerous Latin American and American newspapers; he also founded a number of newspapers. One of those newspapers, Patria, was an important instrument in his campaign for Cuban independence. After his death, many of his verses from the book Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses) were adapted to the patriotic song "Guantanamera", which has become a prominent representative song of Cuba. The concepts of freedom, liberty and democracy are prominent themes in all of his works, which were influential on Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Martí's ideology became a major driving force in Cuban politics. He is also regarded as Cuba's "martyr".

Early life, Cuba: 1853–70
José Julián Martí Pérez was born on January 28, 1853, in Havana, at 41 Paula Street, to Spanish parents, a Valencian father, Mariano Martí Navarro, and Leonor Pérez Cabrera, a native of the Canary Islands. Martí was the older brother to seven sisters: Leonor, Mariana, María del Carmen, María del Pilar, Rita Amelia, Antonia and Dolores. He was baptized on February 12 in Santo Ángel Custodio church. When he was four, his family moved from Cuba to Valencia, Spain, but two years later they returned to the island where they enrolled José at a local public school, in the Santa Clara neighborhood where his father worked as a prison guard.

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.

Martí signed up at the Escuela Profesional de Pintura y Escultura de La Habana (Professional School for Painting and Sculpture of Havana) in September 1867, known as Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, to take drawing classes. He hoped to flourish in this area but did not find commercial success. In 1867, he also entered the school of San Pablo, established and managed by Mendive, where he enrolled for the second and third years of his bachelor's degree and assisted Mendive with the school's administrative tasks. In April 1868, his poem dedicated to Mendive's wife, ''A Micaela. En la Muerte de Miguel Ángel appeared in Guanabacoa's newspaper El Álbum''.

When the Ten Years' War broke out in Cuba in 1868, clubs of supporters for the Cuban nationalist cause formed all over Cuba, and José and his friend Fermín joined them. Martí had a precocious desire for the independence and freedom of Cuba. He started writing poems about this vision, while, at the same time, trying to do something to achieve this dream. In 1869, he published his first political writings in the only edition of the newspaper El Diablo Cojuelo, published by Fermín Valdés Domínguez. That same year he published "Abdala", a patriotic drama in verse form in the one-volume La Patria Libre newspaper, which he published himself. "Abdala" is about a fictional country called Nubia which struggles for liberation. His sonnet "10 de Octubre", later to become one of his most famous poems, was also written during that year, and was published later in his school newspaper.

In March of that year, colonial authorities shut down the school, interrupting Martí's studies. He came to resent Spanish rule of his homeland at an early age; likewise, he developed a hatred of slavery, which was still practiced in Cuba.

On October 21, 1869, aged 16, he was arrested and incarcerated in the national jail, following an accusation of treason and bribery from the Spanish government upon the discovery of a "reproving" letter, which Martí and Fermín had written to a friend when the friend joined the Spanish army. More than four months later, Martí confessed to the charges and was condemned to six years in prison. His mother tried to free her son (who at 16 was still a minor) by writing letters to the government, and his father went to a lawyer friend for legal support, but these efforts failed. Eventually, Martí fell ill; his legs were severely lacerated by the chains that bound him. As a result, he was transferred to another part of Cuba known as Isla de Pinos instead of further imprisonment. Following that, the Spanish authorities decided to exile him to Spain. In Spain, Martí, who was 18 at the time, was allowed to continue his studies with the hopes that studying in Spain would renew his loyalty to Spain.

Spain: 1871–74
In January 1871, Martí embarked on the steam ship Guipuzcoa, which took him from Havana to Cádiz. He settled in Madrid in a guesthouse in Desengaño St. #10. Arriving at the capital he contacted fellow Cuban Carlos Sauvalle, who had been deported to Spain a year before Martí and whose house served as a center of reunions for Cubans in exile. On March 24, Cádiz's newspaper La Soberania Nacional, published Martí's article "Castillo" in which he recalled the sufferings of a friend he met in prison. This article would be reprinted in Sevilla's La Cuestión Cubana and New York's La República. At this time, Martí registered himself as a member of independent studies in the law faculty of the Central University of Madrid. While studying here, Martí openly participated in discourse on the Cuban issue, debating through the Spanish press and circulating documents protesting Spanish activities in Cuba.

Martí's maltreatment at the hands of the Spaniards and consequent deportation to Spain in 1871 inspired a tract, Political Imprisonment in Cuba, published in July. This pamphlet's purpose was to move the Spanish public to do something about its government's brutalities in Cuba and promoted the issue of Cuban independence. In September, from the pages of El Jurado Federal, Martí and Sauvalle accused the newspaper La Prensa of having calumniated the Cuban residents in Madrid. During his stay in Madrid, Martí frequented the Ateneo and the National Library, the Café de los Artistas, and the British, Swiss and Iberian breweries. In November he became sick and had an operation, paid for by Sauvalle.

On November 27, 1871, eight medical students, who had been accused (without evidence) of the desecration of a Spanish grave, were executed in Havana. In June 1872, Fermín Valdés was arrested because of the November 27 incident. His sentence of six years of jail was pardoned, and he was exiled to Spain where he reunited with Martí. On November 27, 1872, the printed matter Dia 27 de Noviembre de 1871 (27 November 1871) written by Martí and signed by Fermín Valdés Domínguez and Pedro J. de la Torre circulated Madrid. A group of Cubans held a funeral in the Caballero de Gracia church, the first anniversary of the medical students' execution.

In 1873, Martí's "A mis Hermanos Muertos el 27 de Noviembre" was published by Fermín Valdés. In February, for the first time, the Cuban flag appeared in Madrid, hanging from Martí's balcony in Concepción Jerónima, where he lived for a few years. In the same month, the Proclamation of the First Spanish Republic by the Cortes on February 11, 1873, reaffirmed Cuba as inseparable to Spain, Martí responded with an essay, The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution, and sent it to the Prime Minister, pointing out that this new freely elected body of deputies that had proclaimed a republic based on democracy had been hypocritical not to grant Cuba its independence. He sent examples of his work to Nestor Ponce de Leon, a member of the Junta Central Revolucionaria de Nueva York (Central revolutionary committee of New York), to whom he would express his will to collaborate on the fight for the independence of Cuba.

In May, he moved to Zaragoza, accompanied by Fermín Valdés to continue his studies in law at the Universidad Literaria. The newspaper La Cuestión Cubana of Sevilla, published numerous articles from Martí.

In June 1874, Martí graduated with a degree in Civil Law and Canon Law. In August he signed up as an external student at the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de Zaragoza, where he finished his degree by October. In November he returned to Madrid and then left to Paris. There he met Auguste Vacquerie, a poet, and Victor Hugo. In December 1874, when prevented to return to Cuba, Marti went instead to Mexico, via Le Havre. During these travels, he taught and wrote, advocating continuously for Cuba's independence.

México and Guatemala: 1875–78
In 1875, Martí lived on Calle Moneda in Mexico City near the Zócalo, a prestigious address of the time. One floor above him lived Manuel Antonio Mercado, Secretary of the Distrito Federal, who became one of Martí's best friends. On March 2, 1875, he published his first article for Vicente Villada's Revista Universal, a broadsheet discussing politics, literature, and general business commerce. On March 12, his Spanish translation of Hugo's Mes Fils (1874) began serialization in Revista Universal. Martí then joined the editorial staff, editing the Boletín section of the publication.

In these writings, he expressed his opinions about current events in Mexico. On May 27, in the newspaper Revista Universal, he responded to the anti-Cuban-independence arguments in La Colonia Española, a newspaper for Spanish citizens living in Mexico. In December, Sociedad Gorostiza (Gorostiza Society), a group of writers and artists, accepted Martí as a member, where he met his future wife, María del Carmen Zayas-Bazán e Hidalgo, during his frequent visits to her Cuban father's house to meet with the Gorostiza group.

On January 1, 1876, in Oaxaca, elements opposed to Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada's government, led by Gen. Porfirio Díaz, proclaimed the Plan de Tuxtepec, which instigated a bloody civil war. Martí and Mexican colleagues established the Sociedad Alarcón, composed of dramatists, actors, and critics. At this point, Martí began collaborating with the newspaper El Socialista as leader of the Gran Círculo Obrero (Great Labor Circle) organization of liberals and reformists who supported Lerdo de Tejada. In March, the newspaper proposed a series of candidates as delegates, including Martí, to the first Congreso Obrero, or congress of the workers. On June 4, La Sociedad Esperanza de Empleados (Employees' Hope Society) designated Martí as delegate to the Congreso Obrero. On December 7, Martí published his article Alea Jacta Est in the newspaper El Federalista, bitterly criticizing the Porfiristas' armed assault upon the constitutional government in place. On December 16, he published the article "Extranjero" (foreigner; abroad), in which he repeated his denunciation of the Porfiristas and bade farewell to Mexico.

In 1877, using his second name and second surname Julián Pérez as pseudonym, Martí embarked for Havana, hoping to arrange to move his family away to Mexico City from Havana. He returned to Mexico, however, entering at the port of Progreso from which, via Isla de Mujeres and Belize, he travelled south to progressive Guatemala City. He took residence in the prosperous suburb of Ciudad Vieja, home of Guatemala's artists and intelligentsia of the day, on Cuarta Avenida (Fourth Avenue), 3 km south of Guatemala City. While there, he was commissioned by the government to write the play Patria y Libertad (Drama Indio) (Country and Liberty (an Indian Drama)). He met personally the president, Justo Rufino Barrios, about this project. On April 22, the newspaper El Progreso published his article "Los códigos Nuevos" (The New Laws) pertaining to the then newly enacted Civil Code. On May 29, he was appointed head of the Department of French, English, Italian and German Literature, History and Philosophy, on the faculty of philosophy and arts of the Universidad Nacional. On July 25, he lectured for the opening evening of the literary society 'Sociedad Literaria El Porvenir', at the Teatro Colón (the since-renamed Teatro Nacional ), at which function he was appointed vice-president of the Society, and acquiring the moniker "el doctor torrente," or Doctor Torrent, in view of his rhetorical style. Martí taught composition classes free at the Academia de Niñas de Centroamérica girls' academy, among whose students he enthralled young María García Granados y Saborío, daughter of Guatemalan president Miguel García Granados. The schoolgirl's crush was unrequited, however, as he went again to México, where he met María del Carmen Zayas-Bazán e Hidalgo and whom he later married.

In 1878, Martí returned to Guatemala and published his book Guatemala, edited in Mexico. On May 10, socialite María García Granados died of lung disease; her unrequited love for Martí branded her, poignantly, as 'la niña de Guatemala, la que se murió de amor' (the Guatemalan girl who died of love). Following her death, Martí returned to Cuba. There, he resigned signing the Pact of Zanjón which ended the Cuban Ten Years' War, but had no effect on Cuba's status as a colony. He met Afro-Cuban revolutionary Juan Gualberto Gómez, who would be his lifelong partner in the independence struggle and a stalwart defender of his legacy during this same journey. He married Carmen Zayas Bazán on Havana's Calle Tulipán Street at this time. In October, his application to practice law in Cuba was refused, and thereafter he immersed himself in radical efforts, such as for the Comité Revolucionario Cubano de Nueva York (Cuban Revolutionary Committee of New York). On November 22, 1878, his son José Francisco, known fondly as "Pepito", was born.

United States and Venezuela: 1880–90
In 1881, after a brief stay in New York, Martí travelled to Venezuela and founded in Caracas the Revista Venezolana, or Venezuelan Review. The journal incurred the wrath of Venezuela's dictator, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, and Martí was forced to return to New York. There, Martí joined General Calixto García's Cuban revolutionary committee, composed of Cuban exiles advocating independence. Here Martí openly supported Cuba's struggle for liberation, and worked as a journalist for La Nación of Buenos Aires and for several Central American journals, especially La Opinion Liberal in Mexico City. The article "El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau," an account of President Garfield's murderer's trial, was published in La Opinion Liberal in 1881, and later selected for inclusion in The Library of America's anthology of American True Crime writing. In addition, Martí wrote poems and translated novels to Spanish. He worked for Appleton and Company and, "on his own, translated and published Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona. His repertory of original work included plays, a novel, poetry, a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro, and a newspaper, Patria, which became the official organ of the Cuban Revolutionary party". He also served as a consul for Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. Throughout this work, he preached the "freedom of Cuba with an enthusiasm that swelled the ranks of those eager to strive with him for it".

Tension existed within the Cuban revolutionary committee between Martí and his military compatriots. Martí feared a military dictatorship would be established in Cuba upon independence, and suspected Dominican-born General Máximo Gómez of having these intentions. Martí knew that the independence of Cuba needed time and careful planning. Ultimately, Martí refused to cooperate with Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo Grajales, two Cuban military leaders from the Ten Years' War, when they wanted to invade immediately in 1884. Martí knew that it was too early to attempt to win back Cuba, and later events proved him right.

United States, Central America and the West Indies: 1891–94
On January 1, 1891, Martí's essay "Nuestra America" was published in New York's Revista Ilustrada, and on the 30th of that month in Mexico's El Partido Liberal. He actively participated in the Conferencia Monetaria Internacional (The International Monetary Conference) in New York during that time as well. On June 30 his wife and son arrived in New York. After a short time, during which Carmen Zayas Bazán realized that Martí's dedication to Cuban independence surpassed that of supporting his family, she returned to Havana with her son on August 27. Martí would never see them again. The fact that his wife never shared the convictions central to his life was an enormous personal tragedy for Martí. He turned for solace to Carmen Miyares de Mantilla, a Venezuelan who ran a boarding house in New York, and he is presumed to be the father of her daughter María Mantilla, who was in turn the mother of the actor Cesar Romero, who proudly claimed to be Martí's grandson. In September Martí became sick again. He intervened in the commemorative acts of The Independents, causing the Spanish consul in New York to complain to the Argentine and Uruguayan governments. Consequently, Martí resigned from the Argentinean, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan consulates. In October he published his book Versos Sencillos.

On November 26 he was invited by the Club Ignacio Agramonte, an organization founded by Cuban immigrants in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to a celebration to collect funding for the cause of Cuban independence. There he gave a lecture known as "Con Todos, y para el Bien de Todos", which was reprinted in Spanish language newspapers and periodicals across the United States. The following night, another lecture, " Los Pinos Nuevos", was given by Martí in another Tampa gathering in honor of the medical students killed in Cuba in 1871. In November artist Herman Norman painted a portrait of José Martí.

On January 5, 1892, Martí participated in a reunion of the emigration representatives, in Cayo Hueso (Key West), the Cuban community where the Bases del Partido Revolucionario (Basis of the Cuban Revolutionary Party) was passed. He began the process of organizing the newly formed party. To raise support and collect funding for the independence movement, he visited tobacco factories, where he gave speeches to the workers and united them in the cause. In March 1892 the first edition of the Patria newspaper, related to the Cuban Revolutionary Party, was published, funded and directed by Martí. During Martí's Key West years, his secretary was Dolores Castellanos (1870–1948), a Cuban-American woman born in Key West, who also served as president of the Protectoras de la Patria: Club Político de Cubanas, a Cuban women's political club in support of Martí's cause, and for whom Martí wrote a poem titled "josemarti.cu/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/0110_A_DOLORES _CASTELLANOS.pdf A Dolores Castellanos."

On April 8, he was elected delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party by the Cayo Hueso Club in Tampa and New York. From July to September 1892 he traveled through Florida, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica on an organization mission among the exiled Cubans. On this mission, Martí made numerous speeches and visited various tobacco factories. In 1893, Martí traveled through the United States, Central America and the West Indies, visiting different Cuban clubs. His visits were received with a growing enthusiasm and raised badly needed funds for the revolutionary cause. On May 24 he met Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan poet in a theatre act in Hardman Hall, New York City. On June 3 he had an interview with Máximo Gómez in Montecristi, Dominican Republic, where they planned the uprising. In July he met with General Antonio Maceo Grajales in San Jose, Costa Rica.

In 1894 he continued traveling for propagation and organizing the revolutionary movement. On January 27 he published "A Cuba!" in the newspaper Patria where he denounced collusion between the Spanish and American interests. In July he visited the president of the Mexican Republic, Porfirio Díaz, and travelled to Veracruz. In August he prepared and arranged the armed expedition that would begin the Cuban revolution.

Return to Cuba: 1895
On January 12, 1895, the North American authorities stopped the steamship Lagonda and two other suspicious ships, Amadis and Baracoa, at the port of Fernandina in Florida, confiscating weapons and ruining Plan de Fernandina (Fernandina Plan). On January 29, Martí drew up the order of the uprising, signing it with general Jose Maria Rodriguez and Enrique Collazo. Juan Gualberto Gómez was assigned to orchestrate war preparations for La Habana Province, and was able to work right under the noses of the relatively unconcerned Spanish authorities. Martí decided to move to Montecristi, Dominican Republic to join Máximo Gómez and to plan out the uprising.

The uprising finally took place on February 24, 1895. A month later, Martí and Máximo Gómez declared the Manifesto de Montecristi, an "exposition of the purposes and principles of the Cuban revolution". Martí had persuaded Gómez to lead an expedition into Cuba.

Before leaving for Cuba, Martí wrote his "literary will" on April 1, 1895, leaving his personal papers and manuscripts to Gonzalo de Quesada, with instructions for editing. Knowing that the majority of his writing in newspapers in Honduras, Uruguay, and Chile would disappear over time, Martí instructed Quesada to arrange his papers in volumes. The volumes were to be arranged in the following way: volumes one and two, North Americas; volume three, Hispanic Americas; volume four, North American Scenes; volume five, Books about the Americas (this included both North and South America); volume six, Literature, education and painting. Another volume included his poetry.

The expedition, composed of Martí, Gómez, Ángel Guerra, Francisco Borreo, Cesar Salas and Marcos del Rosario, left Montecristi for Cuba on April 1, 1895. Despite delays and desertion by some members, they got to Cuba, landing at Playitas, near Cape Maisí and Imías, Cuba, on April 11. Once there, they made contact with the Cuban rebels, who were headed by the Maceo brothers, and started fighting against Spanish troops. The revolt did not go as planned, "mainly because the call to revolution received no immediate, spontaneous support from the masses." By May 13, the expedition reached Dos Rios. On May 19, Gomez faced Ximenez de Sandoval's troops and ordered Martí to stay with the rearguard, but Martí became separated from the bulk of the Cuban forces, and entered the Spanish line.

Death
Martí was killed in battle against Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos, near the confluence of the rivers Contramaestre and Cauto, on May 19, 1895. Gómez had recognized that the Spaniards had a strong position between palm trees, so he ordered his men to disengage. Martí was alone and seeing a young courier ride by said, "Joven, ¡a la carga!" (Young man, charge!) This was around midday, and he was dressed in a black jacket while riding a white horse, which made him an easy target for the Spanish. After Martí was shot, the young trooper, Ángel de la Guardia, lost his horse and returned to report the loss. The Spanish took possession of the body, buried it close by, then exhumed the body upon realization of its identity. He was buried in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.

The death of Martí was a blow to the "aspirations of the Cuban rebels, inside and outside of the island, but the fighting continued with alternating successes and failures until the entry of the United States into the war in 1898".

Liberalism
Martí's political ideas were shaped by his early encounter with Krausist liberalism and its defense of spirituality and solidarity. Radical liberalism in Latin America during this time period often took on a nationalist and anti-imperialist cast, as shown by the examples of Francisco Bilbao in Chile, Benito Juárez in Mexico, José Santos Zelaya in Nicaragua, and Ramón Emeterio Betances in Puerto Rico, whom Martí deeply admired and considered one of his teachers. An increasingly radicalized liberalism emphasizing democratic participation, economic equality, national sovereignty, and supplemented by his exposure to doctrines such as Georgism, remained the dominant basis of Martí's outlook.

Cuban independence
Martí wrote extensively about Spanish colonial control and the threat of US expansionism into Cuba. To him, it was unnatural that Cuba was controlled and oppressed by the Spanish government, when it had its own unique identity and culture. In his pamphlet from February 11, 1873, called "The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution", he argued that "Cubans do not live as Spaniards live.... They are nourished by a different system of trade, have links with different countries, and express their happiness through quite contrary customs. There are no common aspirations or identical goals linking the two peoples, or beloved memories to unite them. ... Peoples are only united by ties of fraternity and love.".

Slavery
Martí opposed slavery and criticized Spain for upholding it. In a speech to Cuban immigrants in Steck Hall, New York, on January 24, 1879, he stated that the war against Spain needed to be fought, recalled the heroism and suffering of the Ten Years' War, which, he declared, had qualified Cuba as a real nation with a right to independence. Spain had not ratified the conditions of the peace treaty, had falsified elections, continued excessive taxation, and had failed to abolish slavery. Cuba needed to be free.

Revolutionary tactics
Martí proposed in a letter to Máximo Gómez in 1882 the formation of a revolutionary party, which he considered essential in the prevention of Cuba falling back on the Home Rule Party (Partido Autonomista) after the Pact of Zanjón. The Home Rule Party was a peace-seeking party that would stop short of the outright independence that Martí thought Cuba needed. But he was aware that there were social divisions in Cuba, especially racial divisions, that needed to be addressed as well. He thought war was necessary to achieve Cuba's freedom, despite his basic ideology of conciliation, respect, dignity, and balance. The establishment of the patria (fatherland) with a good government would unite Cubans of all social classes and colours in harmony. Together with other Cubans resident in New York, Martí started laying the grounds for the Revolutionary Party, stressing the need for a democratic organization as the basic structure before any military leaders were to join. The military would have to subordinate themselves to the interests of the fatherland. Gómez later rejoined Martí's plans, promising to comply.

Martí's consolidation of support among the Cuban expatriates, especially in Florida, was key in the planning and execution of the invasion of Cuba. His speeches to Cuban tobacco workers in Tampa and Key West motivated and united them; this is considered the most important political achievement of his life. At this point he refined his ideological platform, basing it on a Cuba held together by pride in being Cuban, a society that ensured "the welfare and prosperity of all Cubans" independently of class, occupation or race. Faith in the cause could not die, and the military would not try for domination. All pro-independence Cubans would participate, with no sector predominating. From this he established the Cuban Revolutionary Party in early 1892.

Martí and the CRP were devoted to secretly organizing the anti-Spanish war. Martí's newspaper, Patria, was a key instrument of this campaign, where Martí delineated his final plans for Cuba. Through this medium he argued against the exploitative colonialism of Spain in Cuba, criticized the Home Rule (Autonomista) Party for having aims that fell considerably short of full independence, and warned against U.S. annexationism which he felt could only be prevented by Cuba's successful independence. He specified his plans for the future Cuban Republic, a multi-class and multi-racial democratic republic based on universal suffrage, with an egalitarian economic base to develop fully Cuba's productive resources and an equitable distribution of land among citizens, with enlightened and virtuous politicians.

From Martí's 'Campaign Diaries', written during the final expedition in Cuba, it seems evident that Martí would have reached the highest position in the future Republic of Arms. This was not to be; his death occurred before the Assembly of Cuba was set up. Until his last minute, Martí dedicated his life to achieve full independence for Cuba. His uncompromising belief in democracy and freedom for his fatherland is what characterized his political ideology.

United States
Martí demonstrated an anti-imperialist attitude from an early age, and was convinced that the United States posed a danger for Latin America. While critiquing the United States for its stereotypes of Latin Americans and preoccupation with capitalism, Martí also drew parallels with the American Revolution and the nationalist movement in Cuba. At the same time, he recognized the advantages of the civilizations of Western Europe and the United States, which were open to the reforms that Latin American countries needed in order to detach themselves from the colonial heritage of Spain. Martí's distrust of U.S. politics had developed during the 1880s, due to the intervention threats that loomed on Mexico and Guatemala, and indirectly on Cuba's future. Over time Martí became increasingly alarmed about the United States' intentions for Cuba. The United States desperately needed new markets for its industrial products because of the economic crisis it was experiencing, and the media was talking about the purchase of Cuba from Spain. Cuba was a profitable, fertile country with an important strategic position in the Gulf of Mexico. Martí felt that the interests of Cuba's future lay with its sister nations in Latin America, and were opposite to those of the United States.

Another trait that Martí admired was the work ethic that characterized U.S. society. On various occasions Martí conveyed his deep admiration for the immigrant-based society, "whose principal aspiration he interpreted as being to construct a truly modern country, based upon hard work and progressive ideas." Martí stated that he was "never surprised in any country of the world [he had] visited. Here [he] was surprised... [he] remarked that no one stood quietly on the corners, no door was shut an instant, no man was quiet. [He] stopped [him]self, [he] looked respectfully on this people, and [he] said goodbye forever to that lazy life and poetical inutility of our European countries".

Although Martí opposed US intervention in Cuba, he found American society to be so great that he believed Latin America should consider imitating the United States. Martí argued that if the US "could reach such a high standard of living in so short a time, and despite, too, its lack of unifying traditions, could not the same be expected of Latin America?" However, Martí believed US expansionism represented Spanish American republics' "greatest danger." Martí was amazed at how education was directed towards helping the development of the nation and once again encouraged Latin American countries to follow the example set by U.S. society. At the same time, he criticized the elitist educational systems of Cuba and the rest of Latin America. Often, Martí recommended countries in Latin America to "send representatives to learn more relevant techniques in the United States". Once this was done, Martí hoped that this representatives would bring a "much-needed modernization to the Latin American agricultural policies".

However, not everything in the United States was to be admired by Martí. When it came to politics Martí wrote that politics in the US had "adopted a carnival atmosphere... especially during election time". He saw acts of corruption among candidates, such as bribing "the constituents with vast quantities of beer, while impressive parades wound their way through New York's crowded streets, past masses of billboards, all exhorting the public to vote for the different political candidates". Martí criticized and condemned the elites of the United States as they "pulled the main political strings behind the scenes". According to Martí, the elites "deserved severe censure" as they were the biggest threat to the "ideals with which the United States was first conceived".

Martí started to believe that the US had abused its potential. Racism was abundant. Different races were being discriminated against; political life "was both cynically regarded by the public at large and widely abused by 'professional politicians'; industrial magnates and powerful labor groups faced each other menacingly". All of this convinced Martí that a large-scale social conflict was imminent in the United States.

On the positive side, Martí was astonished by the "inviolable right of freedom of speech which all U.S. citizens possessed". Martí applauded the United States' Constitution which allowed freedom of speech to all its citizens, no matter what political beliefs they had. In May 1883, while attending political meetings he heard "the call for revolution – and more specifically the destruction of the capitalist system". Martí was amazed that the country maintained freedom of speech even with respect to calls that "could have led to its own destruction". Martí also gave his support to the women's suffrage movements, and was "pleased that women here [took] advantage of this privilege in order to make their voices heard". According to Martí, free speech was essential if any nation was to be civilized and he expressed his "profound admiration for these many basic liberties and opportunities open to the vast majority of U.S. citizens".

The works of Martí contain many comparisons between the ways of life of North and Latin America. The former was seen as "hardy, 'soulless', and, at times, cruel society, but one which, nevertheless, had been based upon a firm foundation of liberty and on a tradition of liberty". Although U.S. society had its flaws, they tended to be "of minor importance when compared to the broad sweep of social inequality, and to the widespread abuse of power prevalent in Latin America".

Once it became apparent that the United States were actually going to purchase Cuba and intended to Americanize it, Martí "spoke out loudly and bravely against such action, stating the opinion of many Cubans on the United States of America."

Latin American identity
José Martí as a liberator believed that the Latin American countries needed to know the reality of their own history. Martí also saw the necessity of a country having its own literature. These reflections started in Mexico from 1875 and are connected to the Mexican Reform, where prominent liberals like Ignacio Manuel Altamirano and Guillermo Prieto had situated themselves in front of a cultural renovation in Mexico, taking on the same approach as Esteban Echeverría thirty years before in Argentina. In the second "Boletin" that Martí published in the Revista Universal (May 11, 1875) one can already see Martí's approach, which was fundamentally Latin American. His wish to build a national or Latin American identity was nothing new or unusual in those days; however, no Latin-American intellectual of that time had approached as clearly as Martí the task of building a national identity. He insisted on the necessity of building institutions and laws that matched the natural elements of each country, and recalled the failure of the applications of French and American civil codes in the new Latin American republics. Martí believed that "el hombre del sur", the man of the South, should choose an appropriate development strategy matching his character, the peculiarity of his culture and history, and the nature that determined his being.

Writings
Martí as a writer covered a range of genres. In addition to producing newspaper articles and keeping up an extensive correspondence (his letters are included in the collection of his complete works), he wrote a serialized novel, composed poetry, wrote essays, and published four issues of a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age, 1889). His essays and articles occupy more than fifty volumes of his complete works. His prose was extensively read and influenced the modernist generation, especially the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, whom Martí called "my son" when they met in New York in 1893.

Martí did not publish any books: only two notebooks (Cuadernos) of verses, in editions outside of the market, and a number of political tracts. The rest (an enormous amount) was left dispersed in numerous newspapers and magazines, in letters, in diaries and personal notes, in other unedited texts, in frequently improvised speeches, and some lost forever. Five years after his death, the first volume of his Obras was published. A novel appeared in this collection in 1911: Amistad funesta, which Martí had made known was published under a pseudonym in 1885. In 1913, also in this edition, his third poetic collection that he had kept unedited: Versos Libres. His Diario de Campaña (Campaign Diary) was published in 1941. Later still, in 1980, Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Mejía Sánchez produced a set of about thirty of Martí's articles written for the Mexican newspaper El Partido Liberal that weren't included in any of his so-called Obras Completas editions. From 1882 to 1891, Martí collaborated in La Nación, a Buenos Aires newspaper. His texts from La Nación have been collected in Anuario del centro de Estudios Martíanos.

Over the course of his journalistic career, he wrote for numerous newspapers, starting with El Diablo Cojuelo (The Limping Devil) and La Patria Libre (The Free Fatherland), both of which he helped to found in 1869 in Cuba and which established the extent of his political commitment and vision for Cuba. In Spain he wrote for La Colonia Española,in Mexico for La Revista Universal, and in Venezuela for Revista Venezolana, which he founded. In New York he contributed to Venezuelan periodical La Opinión Nacional, Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación, Mexico's La Opinion Liberal, and The Hour from the U.S.

The first critical edition of Martí's complete works began to appear in 1983 in ''José Martí: Obras completas. Edición crítica''. The critical edition of his complete poems was published in 1985 in ''José Martí: Poesía completa. Edición critica.''

Volume two of his Obras Completas includes his famous essay 'Nuestra America' which "comprises a variety of subjects relating to Spanish America about which Martí studied and wrote. Here it is noted that after Cuba his interest was directed mostly to Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela. The various sections of this part are about general matters and international conferences; economic, social and political questions; literature and art; agrarian and industrial problems; immigration; education; relations with the United States and Spanish America; travel notes".

According to Martí, the intention behind the publication of "La edad de oro" was "so that American children may know how people used to live, and how they live nowadays, in the United States and in other countries; how many things are made, such as glass and iron, steam engines and suspension bridges and electric light; so that when a child sees a coloured stone he will know why the stone is coloured. ... We shall tell them about everything which is done in factories, where things happen which are stranger and more interesting than the magic in fairy stories. These things are real magic, more marvelous than any. ... We write for children because it is they who know how to love, because it is children who are the hope for the world".

Martí's "Versos Sencillos" was written "in the town of Haines Falls, New York, where his doctor has sent [him] to regain his strength 'where streams flowed and clouds gathered in upon themeselves'". The poetry encountered in this work is "in many [ways] autobiographical and allows readers to see Martí the man and the patriot and to judge what was important to him at a crucial time in Cuban history".

Martí's writings reflected his own views both socially and politically. "Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca" is one of his poems that emphasize his views in hopes of betterment for society:

This poem is a clear description of Martí's societal hopes for his homeland. Within the poem, he talks about how regardless of the person, whether kind or cruel he cultivates a white rose, meaning that he remains peaceful. This coincides with his ideology about establishing unity amongst the people, more so those of Cuba, through a common identity, with no regards to ethnic and racial differences. This doctrine could be accomplished if one treated his enemy with peace as he would treat a friend. The kindness of one person should be shared with all people, regardless of personal conflict. By following the moral that lies within "Cultivo Rosa Blanca", Martí's vision of Cuban solidarity could be possible, creating a more peaceful society that would emanate through future generations.

After his breakthrough in Cuba literature, José Martí went on to contribute his works to newspapers, magazines, and books that reflected his political and social views. Because of his early death, Martí was unable to publish a vast collection of poetry; even so, his literary contributions have made him a renowned figure in literature, influencing many writers, and people in general, to aspire to follow in the footsteps of Martí.

Style
Martí's style of writing is difficult to categorize. He used many aphorisms—short, memorable lines that convey truth and/or wisdom—and long complex sentences. He is considered a major contributor to the Spanish American literary movement known as Modernismo and has been linked to Latin American consciousness of the modern age and modernity. His chronicles combined elements of literary portraiture, dramatic narration, and a dioramic scope. His poetry contained "fresh and astonishing images along with deceptively simple sentiments". As an orator (for he made many speeches) he was known for his cascading structure, powerful aphorisms, and detailed descriptions. More important than his style is how he uses that style to put into service his ideas, making "advanced" convincing notions. Throughout his writing he made reference to historical figures and events, and used constant allusions to literature, current news and cultural matters. For this reason, he may be difficult to read and translate.

His didactic spirit encouraged him to establish a magazine for children, La Edad de Oro (1889) which contained a short essay titled "Tres Heroes" (three heroes), representative of his talent to adapt his expression to his audience; in this case, to make the young reader conscious of and amazed by the extraordinary bravery of the three men, Bolivar, Hidalgo, and San Martín. This is his style to teach delightfully.

Translation
José Martí is universally honored as a great poet, patriot and martyr of Cuban Independence, but he was also a translator of some note. Although he translated literary material for the sheer joy of it, much of the translating he did was imposed on him by economic necessity during his many years of exile in the United States. Martí learned English at an early age, and had begun to translate at thirteen. He continued translating for the rest of his life, including his time as a student in Spain, although the period of his greatest productivity was during his stay in New York from 1880 until he returned to Cuba in 1895.

In New York he was what is known today as a "freelancer," as well as an "in house" translator. He translated several books for the publishing house of D. Appleton, and did a series of translations for newspapers. As a revolutionary activist in Cuba's long struggle for independence he translated into English a number of articles and pamphlets supporting that movement. In addition to fluent English, Martí also spoke French, Italian, Latin and Classical Greek fluently, the latter learned so he could read the Greek classical works in the original.

There was clearly a dichotomy in Martí's feeling about the kind of work he was translating. Like many professionals, he undertook for money translation tasks which had little intellectual or emotional appeal for him. Although Martí never presented a systematic theory of translation nor did he write extensively about his approach to translation, he did jot down occasional thoughts on the subject, showcasing his awareness of the translator's dilemma of the faithful versus the beautiful and stating that "translation should be natural, so that it appears that the book were written in the language to which it has been translated".

Modernism
Modernists, in general, use a subjective language. Martí's stylistic creed is part of the necessity to de-codify the logic rigor and the linguistic construction and to eliminate the intellectual, abstract and systematic expression. There is the deliberate intention and awareness to expand the expressive system of the language. The style changes the form of thinking. Without falling into unilateralism, Martí values the expression because language is an impression and a feeling through the form. Modernism mostly searches for visions and realities, the expression takes in the impressions, the state of mind, without reflection and without concept. This is the law of subjectivity. We can see this in works of Martí, one of the first modernists, who conceives the literary task like an invisible unity, an expressive totality, considering the style like "a form of the content" (forma del contenido).

The difference that Martí established between prose and poetry are conceptual. Poetry, as he believes, is a language of the permanent subjective: the intuition and the vision. The prose is an instrument and a method of spreading the ideas, and has the goal of elevating, encouraging and animating these ideas rather than having the expression of tearing up the heart, complaining and moaning. The prose is a service to his people.

Martí produces a system of specific signs "an ideological code" (código ideológico). These symbols claim their moral value and construct signs of ethic conduct. Martí's modernism was a spiritual attitude that was reflected on the language. All his writing defines his moral world. One could also say that his ideological and spiritual sphere is fortified in his writing.

The difference between Martí and other modernist initiators such as Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Julián del Casal, and José Asunción Silva (and the similarity between him and Manuel González Prada) lies in the profound and transcendent value that he gave to literature, converting prose into an article or the work of a journalist. This hard work was important in giving literature authentic and independent value and distancing it from mere formal amusement. Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Rubén Darío, Miguel de Unamuno and José Enrique Rodó saved the Martínian articles, which will have an endless value in the writings of the American continent.

Apart from Martínian articles, essay writing and literature starts to authorize itself as an alternative and privileged way to talk about politics. Literature starts to apply itself the only hermeneutics able to resolve the enigmas of a Latin American identity.

Symbol of Cuban independence
Martí's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His writings have created a platform for all that he went through during the duration of this period in time. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work haranguing the Cuban community, raising funds, resolving the disagreements of important revolutionary leaders, and creating the Cuban Revolutionary Party to organize this effort, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish–American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. Through his beliefs for Cuban and Latin American sovereignty, Cuba revolted on former allies. This is why Cuba became an independent nation. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed.

Influence on Cuban politics
Martí was a Classical liberal whose major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. His writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution, and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation.

Due to the great admiration of the Cuban people for Martí, the communist government and Castro himself have tried to associate themselves with Martí as much as possible, endorsing his anti-imperialist positions, and downplaying his views that conflict with Cuban communist doctrine. Despite Martí never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly cited Martí as an inspiration, and claimed that Martí's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party". A clear example of this forced association, is that following his death in 2016, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro was buried next to Martí in Santiago.

Regarded as Cuba's "martyr" and "apostle," several landmarks in Cuba are dedicated to Martí. During Castro's tenure, the politics and death of Martí were used to justify certain actions of the state. The Cuban government claimed that Martí had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for a communist government. However, such claims are due more to the communist administration's desire to justify its actions by attributing them to the thinking of the national hero, than to concrete evidence. There is no proof that Martí wanted a one-party system for Cuba. On the contrary, he was an admirer of democracy and the American republican system, and throughout his life he fiercely criticized any type of dictatorial government. In addition, he also criticized Marx, and warned on several occasions about the dangers of socialism.

Martí's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. Cubans who oppose the communist government honor Martí as a defender of freedom and democracy, and a figure of hope for the Cuban nation, and condemn Castro's government for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Martí" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation.

Memorials and tributes
José Martí International Airport, Havana's international airport, is named after Martí. A statue of Martí was unveiled in Havana on his 123rd birth anniversary, with President Raúl Castro attending the ceremony. The José Martí Memorial in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana includes a 109-m tower and is the largest monument in the world dedicated to a writer.

The National Association of Hispanic Publications, a non-profit organization to promote Hispanic publications, each year designates the José Martí Awards for excellence in Hispanic media.

On the waterfront of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, a city that José Martí visited three times, a power station is named after him. The home where he resided during his final visit in 1895 bears a marble plaque. Place José Martí (José Martí Square), featuring a bust of the poet, was inaugurated in 2014.

Parque Amigos de José Martí is a small park located in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, FL. In 1956, the land was gifted to Cuba and the park was officially dedicated in 1960. The park prominently features a statue of Martí and a plaque erected in 1998. Near the park's entrance is a plaque commemorating the site of La Casa De Pedroso, a boarding house where Martí convalesced following an attempted poisoning. About a block away is another historical marker commemorating his impromptu speech to Cuban cigar workers from the steps of the Ybor Factory Building in 1893. The parks and markers are inside the Ybor City Historic District.

The "White Rose" name of Germany's Anti Nazi resistance group led by Sophie and Hans Scholl of Munich university was apparently inspired by Jose Marti's verse "Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca" (Versos Sencillos). In Bucharest Romania a public school and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Martí".

In Shively, Ky., part of Louisville Metro, a bronze bust atop a marble monument pays tribute to José Martí.

List of selected works
Martí's fundamental works published during his life

 * 1869 January: Abdala
 * 1869 January: 10 de octubre
 * 1871: El presidio político en Cuba
 * 1873: La República Española ante la revolución cubana
 * 1875: Amor con amor se paga
 * 1882: Ismaelillo
 * 1882 February: Ryan vs. Sullivan
 * 1882 February: Un incendio
 * 1882 July: El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau
 * 1883 January: Batallas de la Paz
 * 1883 March: Que son graneros humanos
 * 1883 March: Karl Marx ha muerto
 * 1883 March:El Puente de Brooklyn
 * 1883 September: En Coney Island se vacía Nueva York
 * 1883 December: Los políticos de oficio"
 * 1883 December: Bufalo Bil
 * 1884 April: Los caminadores
 * 1884 November: Norteamericanos
 * 1884 November: El juego de pelota de pies
 * 1885: Amistad funesta
 * 1885 January: Teatro en Nueva York
 * 1885 Una gran rosa de bronce encendida
 * 1885 March:Los fundadores de la constitución
 * 1885 June: Somos pueblo original
 * 1885 August: Los políticos tiene sus púgiles
 * 1886 May: Las revueltas anarquistas de Chicago
 * 1886 September: La ensenanza
 * 1886 October: La Estatua de la Libertad
 * 1887 April: El poeta Walt Whitman
 * 1887 April: El Madison Square
 * 1887 November: Ejecución de los dirigentes anarquistas de Chicago
 * 1887 November: La gran Nevada
 * 1888 May: El ferrocarril elevado
 * 1888 August: Verano en Nueva York
 * 1888 November: Ojos abiertos, y gargantas secas
 * 1888 November: Amanece y ya es fragor
 * 1889: La edad de oro
 * 1889 May: El centenario de George Washington
 * 1889 July: Bañistas
 * 1889 August: Nube Roja
 * 1889 September: La caza de negros
 * 1890 November: El jardín de las orquídeas
 * 1891 October: Versos sencillos
 * 1891 January: Nuestra América
 * 1894 January: ¡A Cuba!
 * 1895: Manifiesto de Montecristi- coauthor with Máximo Gómez

Martí's major posthumous works

 * Adúltera
 * Versos libres

title: José Martí


text:
WPIX

WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City, serving as the de facto flagship of The CW Television Network. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, the station is operated by CW majority owner Nexstar Media Group under a local marketing agreement (LMA). Since its inception in 1948, WPIX's studios and offices have been located in the Daily News Building on East 42nd Street (also known as "11 WPIX Plaza") in Midtown Manhattan. The station's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

WPIX is also available as a regional superstation via satellite and cable in the United States and Canada. It is the largest Nexstar-operated station by population of market size.

As an independent station (1948–1995)
The station first signed on the air on June 15, 1948; it was the fifth television station to sign on in New York City and was the market's second independent station. It was also the second of three stations to launch in the New York market during 1948, debuting one month after Newark, New Jersey–based independent WATV (channel 13, now WNET) and two months before WJZ-TV (channel 7, now WABC-TV). WPIX's call letters come from the slogan of the newspaper which founded the station, the New York Daily News, whose slogan was "New York's Picture Newspaper". The Daily News's partial corporate parent was the Chicago-based Tribune Company, publishers of the Chicago Tribune.

Until becoming owned outright by Tribune in 1991, WPIX operated separately from the company's other television and radio outlets (including WGN-TV in Chicago, which signed-on two months before WPIX in April 1948) through the News-owned license holder, WPIX, Incorporated – which in 1963, purchased New York radio station, WBFM (101.9 FM) and soon changed that station's call letters to WPIX-FM. British businessman Robert Maxwell bought the Daily News in 1991. Tribune retained WPIX and WQCD; the radio station was sold to Emmis Communications in 1997 (it is now WFAN-FM). WPIX initially featured programming that was standard among independents: children's programs, movies, syndicated reruns of network programs, public affairs programming, religious programs and sports – specifically, the New York Yankees, whose baseball games WPIX carried from 1951 to 1998.

To generations of New York children, channel 11 was also the home of memorable personalities. In 1955, original WPIX staffer and weather forecaster Joe Bolton, donned a policeman's uniform and became "Officer Joe," hosting several programs based around Little Rascals, Three Stooges, and later Popeye shorts. Another early WPIX personality, Jack McCarthy, also hosted Popeye and Dick Tracy cartoons as "Captain Jack" in the early 1960s, though he was also the longtime host of channel 11's St. Patrick's Day parade coverage from 1949 to 1992. WPIX aired a local version of Bozo the Clown (with Bill Britten in the role) from 1959 to 1964; comic performers Chuck McCann and Allen Swift also hosted programs on WPIX during the mid-1960s before each moved to other entertainment work in Hollywood. Jazz singer Joya Sherrill hosted a weekday children's show, Time for Joya (later known as Joya's Fun School). Channel 11 produced the Magic Garden series, which ran on the station from 1972 to 1984. Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing through spring 1982, the station aired "TV PIXX", a television video game show played during commercial breaks of afternoon programs. Kids would call into the station for the chance to control a video game via telephone in hopes of winning prizes.

Another staple of WPIX's programming was its selection of movies; unlike many independent stations, WPIX's library went beyond the usual offerings from major studios and low-budget B-movies, to movies produced by Samuel Goldwyn and imports from Britain. The station also became famous to many area viewers for their various holiday broadcasts of films that became traditions at the station, such as the broadcast of the 1934 movie March of the Wooden Soldiers on Thanksgiving Day. This reputation for film programming (for much of the station's history, a movie ran at 8 p.m. every night in prime time; movies also made up much of the schedule on weekends) became so ingrained that the station frequently promoted itself as being "New York's Movie Station" during the late 1980s and 1990s. Another notable programming stunt was Shocktober, where for the entire month of October, various horror and thriller films were played; this occurred for several years in the early 1990s, and became a cult favorite among area viewers.

From its early years through the 1960s, WPIX, like the other two major independents in New York, WOR-TV (channel 9, now WWOR) and WNEW-TV (channel 5, now WNYW), struggled to acquire other programming. In 1966, WPIX debuted The Yule Log, which combines Christmas music with a film loop of logs burning inside a fireplace. Airing on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas morning initially until 1989, the film was made in 1966 and was shot at Gracie Mansion, with the cooperation of then Mayor John V. Lindsay. WPIX revived the Yule Log due to viewer demand in 2001, and has proven to be just as popular. Several of Tribune's other television stations (as well as WGN America and Antenna TV) have carried the WPIX version, complete with its audio soundtrack, on Christmas morning since the late 2000s, and is also streamed online on WPIX's website. Since 1977, Channel 11 has aired a live broadcast of Midnight Mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral every Christmas Eve.

The station's "Circle 11" logo – predating the existence of the World Trade Center (which was not completed until 1973), which it closely resembled – was first unveiled in 1969 (an advertising billboard for WPIX with the "Circle 11" logo began appearing that year at Yankee Stadium). By the mid-1970s, WPIX emerged as the second highest-rated independent station in the area, behind WNEW-TV. WPIX dropped the "Circle 11" when it rebranded as "11 Alive" in September 1976, though it continued to appear during station editorials until around 1982 (the "Alive" slogan was popularized by such stations as Atlanta's WXIA-TV, which itself has branded as "11 Alive" ever since that point, with the exception of a brief removal in 1995); the "Circle 11" logo returned as part of the "11 Alive" branding in 1984, before being restored full-time in the fall of 1986. Its relaunch featured a series of humorous promos in which a fictional station employee, "Henry Tillman," was searching for a "big idea" for something uniquely New York in nature to serve as the perfect WPIX symbol. The running gag in these ads was the fact that Tillman was constantly surrounded by – but never noticed – objects resembling a giant "11", most notably the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

In 1978, WPIX was uplinked to satellite and became a superstation that was distributed to cable providers throughout the U.S. (many providers carried WPIX's signal until the early 1990s, when most systems outside of the Northeastern United States began replacing WPIX with the superstation feed of WGN-TV, though the station continues to be distributed through Dish Network domestically (which since it halted sales of the package to new subscribers in September 2013, is available only to grandfathered subscribers of its a la carte superstation tier) and on most cable and satellite providers throughout Canada). Two years later, WPIX began operating on a 24-hour programming schedule.

During the late 1980s, WPIX fell to sixth place in the ratings among New York's VHF stations, behind WNYW (which was now owned by Fox) and a resurgent WWOR (then owned by MCA–Universal). After president Leavitt Pope stepped down as general manager (though he remained as president and CEO of WPIX), Michael Eigner was transferred from Los Angeles sister station KTLA to become WPIX's general manager in August 1989.

Over the next few years the station engineered a slow turnaround that eventually resulted in WPIX becoming the leading independent station in the market. In 1994, the station became the exclusive home of the New York City Marathon, carrying the event for the next five years. It was during the initial broadcast of that event that WPIX unveiled a stylized serifed "11" logo; the new numerical look eventually became the full-time logo, augmented with The WB's logo after the station affiliated with that network in 1995.

In mid-January 1994, the station began airing the Action Pack programming block with the TV movie TekWar. WPIX earned the biggest ratings of all the stations airing the program, with an 11.7/17 rating.

WB affiliation (1995–2006)
On November 2, 1993, the Warner Bros. Television division of Time Warner and the Tribune Company announced the formation of The WB Television Network. Due to the company's ownership interest in the network (initially a 12.5% stake, before expanding to 22%), Tribune signed the majority of its independent stations to serve as The WB's charter affiliates, resulting in WPIX becoming a network affiliate for the first time upon its January 11, 1995, debut.

The station was verbally branded as "The WB, Channel 11" (simply adding The WB name to the "Channel 11" branding in use since 1986), until it was simplified to "The WB 11" in 1997, and further to "WB11" in 2000. Initially, WPIX's programming remained unchanged, as The WB had broadcast only prime time shows on Wednesday nights at its launch. As with other WB-affiliated stations during the network's first four years, WPIX ran feature films and select first-run scripted series prior to its 10 p.m. newscast on nights when The WB did not offer network programming.

WB network and syndicated daytime programs (such as Maury and Jerry Springer) became more prominent on channel 11's schedule starting in 1996 at the expense of most of its local-interest programming outside of news. By September 1999, when The WB completed its prime time expansion and the network began running its programming Sunday through Friday nights, movies were limited to Saturday evenings and weekend afternoons.

September 11 attacks
On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of WPIX, and several other New York City area television and radio stations were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center; both of the complex's main towers collapsed due to fires caused by the impact. WPIX lead engineer Steven A. Jacobson was among those who were killed in the terrorist attack. WPIX's satellite feed froze on the last video frame received from the WTC mast, a replay of the North Tower burning and the start of the impact of the South Tower; the image remained on-screen for much of the day until WPIX was able to set up alternate transmission facilities (the microwave relay for WPIX's satellite feed was also located at the World Trade Center). WPIX also broadcast on W64AA in the interim. Since then, WPIX has transmitted its signal from the Empire State Building.

The station's coverage of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack was notable in that WPIX's helicopter was the last to land following an FAA directive that grounded all aircraft. WPIX was given special permission to continue airing aerial video from its helicopter after the collapse of the World Trade Center, though that permission wasn't conditioned on WPIX distributing the footage as a pool camera. Footage from WPIX's helicopter was one of many videos used by the NIST in its investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center complex.

CW affiliation (2006–present)
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. Entertainment unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the two networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW. As part of the announcement, Tribune signed ten-year affiliation agreements with the network for 16 of its 19 WB-affiliated stations, including WPIX. Tribune chose not to exercise an ownership interest in The CW. At the time, WPIX was the largest CW affiliate that was not owned by either CBS Corporation or Time Warner, and the largest English-language network-affiliated station that was not an owned-and-operated station of its respective network.

WPIX began transitioning its on-air branding to "CW 11" during the summer of 2006; prior to the start of the station's 10 p.m. newscast on September 17, 2006 (which aired following The WB's final night of programming and the night prior to The CW's official launch), shortly after airing the WB's final sign off bumper featuring stars from the WB's shows, the station aired a video montage of past WPIX logos, starting with a 1948 test pattern and concluding with the official unveiling of the new "CW11" logo.

On April 2, 2007, investor Sam Zell announced plans to purchase the Tribune Company, with intentions to take the publicly traded firm private. The deal was completed on December 20, 2007. Prior to the sale's closure, WPIX had been the only commercial television station in New York City to have never been involved in an ownership transaction (Tribune subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008, due to debt accrued from Zell's leveraged buyout and costs from the company's privatization; it emerged from bankruptcy in December 2012 under the control of its senior debt holders Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase). The station began gradually adopting a modernized "Circle 11" logo in mid-October 2008, featuring a slimmer version of the WB-era "11" (the CW logo is sometimes used next to the "Circle 11", primarily in station promos for CW programs). The station's branding was then changed to "PIX 11" on December 1, 2008 (the "PIX" in the call letters are pronounced phonetically, similar to the word "picks").

On August 17, 2012, Cablevision removed the station from its New York area systems, part of a carriage dispute with Tribune in which WPIX's Hartford, Philadelphia and Denver sister stations were removed from Cablevision's systems in those markets. Cablevision accused Tribune of demanding higher carriage fees (claiming to total in the tens of millions of dollars) for use to help pay off debt, and alleged that it illegally bundled carriage agreements for WPIX and Hartford's WTIC-TV (which was later pulled as well, but unlike co-owned WCCT, was initially unaffected due to a separate carriage agreement); the company denied the claims, stating its approach complied with FCC regulations. The stations and WGN America were restored in an agreement reached on October 26, following a plea by Connecticut State Senator Gayle Slossberg for the FCC to intervene in the dispute.

On May 23, 2016, WPIX owner Tribune Broadcasting and The CW reached a five-year affiliation agreement that renewed the network's affiliations with twelve of Tribune's CW-affiliated stations (including WPIX) through the 2020–21 television season; the deal came after a year-long disagreement between The CW's managing partner CBS Corporation and Tribune concerning financial terms, specifically the amount of reverse compensation that The CW had sought from the group's CW affiliates.

Sinclair acquisition attempt and subsequent transactions
Sinclair Broadcast Group announced plans to acquire Tribune Media for $3.9 billion on May 8, 2017, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in Tribune debt. To meet regulatory approval, WPIX was one of several stations identified by Sinclair for divestitures to a third party; Sinclair partner licensee Cunningham Broadcasting was later revealed as the buyer for WPIX-TV with a below market-value $15 million purchase price. Several weeks after that divestment was announced, Sinclair withdrew the resale with intentions to retain WPIX outright. The attempted sale of WPIX—along with Tribune stations in Dallas and Houston—to Cunningham, and in particular a planned sale of WGN-TV to an LLC controlled by a friend of Sinclair executive chairman David D. Smith, resulted in FCC chairman Ajit Pai publicly rejecting the merger. Despite Sinclair abandoning the divestments, the FCC voted to send the merger up for an evidentiary review. Tribune Media moved to terminate the merger outright on August 9, 2018, and filed a breach of contract lawsuit in the process.

Following the Sinclair deal's collapse, Nexstar Media Group agreed to acquire Tribune Media's assets on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. WPIX-TV was then sold by Nexstar to the E. W. Scripps Company for $75 million as part of a series of divestitures totaling $1.32 billion; both transactions were completed on September 19, 2019. Under the terms of the deal, Nexstar was granted an option by Scripps to repurchase WPIX between March 31, 2020, and December 31, 2021. Nexstar partner licensee Mission Broadcasting exercised said option to buy WPIX on July 13, 2020—Nexstar had previously transferred to Mission said repurchase option—for $75 million plus accrued interest. This coincided with Scripps's eventual merger with Ion Media, owner of WPXN-TV. The sale to Mission was approved by the FCC on December 1 and completed on December 30.

On May 20, 2021, Nexstar announced that they renewed affiliations for The CW in 37 media markets, which includes WPIX.

On March 21, 2024, the FCC ruled Mission's ownership of WPIX to be an illegal circumvention of its ownership limits, due to Nexstar treating the station like its own, and ordered Nexstar to either sell it to an independent third party or sell off some of its other stations to buy WPIX outright. The decision came as local marketing agreements and similar licensing deals came under increased scrutiny by the FCC. Nexstar stated its intent to dispute the ruling, claiming that it had always complied with FCC regulations.

News operation
As most stations did in the late 1940s and early 1950s, WPIX aired filmed coverage of news events. The station's first news program, TelePIX Newsreel, was the first in New York City to consist entirely of filmed coverage. From 1948 to 1965, WPIX produced Three Star News, a 6:30 p.m. newscast which employed a three-anchor format—with Kevin Kennedy reading world and national news, John Tillman reporting local stories and Joe Bolton as the weatherman. Bolton was later assigned to host children's programming and was replaced by Gloria Okon. The program was canceled after an FCC complaint that some of Tillman's "man on the street" interviews were staged with paid actors, most notable of which was a "pro-Castro sympathizer", who was "interviewed" with a copy of the Daily Worker newspaper conveniently tucked under his arm.

WPIX produced the Independent Network News, a national newscast that was syndicated to independent stations from June 1980 to June 1990. The program – whose live feed was transmitted nationally weeknights at 9:30 p.m. (ET) – featured the same on-air staff as channel 11's newscasts and was broadcast from the same news studio, with INN logos covering the station's own logo on various set pieces. In New York City, WPIX paired a 10 p.m. replay of the national news with a live local newscast at 10:30 pm, called the Action News Metropolitan Report. As part of a midday expansion of INN, starting in 1981, channel 11 also launched a newscast at 12:30 pm. During the decade, WPIX also produced two other programs syndicated to stations that carried the INN program: the business-oriented Wall Street Journal Report; and From the Editor's Desk, a Sunday news discussion program hosted by Richard D. Heffner, host of the long-running public-affairs program The Open Mind.

WPIX was also noted for the many post–news editorials that were delivered by Richard N. Hughes, vice president of news operations from 1969 to 1995. His editorials ended with the tagline "What's your opinion? We'd like to know." Periodically, he would read excerpts from viewers' letters in response to the editorials, invariably closing each excerpt by saying, "And that ends that quote." In 1984, the station renamed its local and syndicated news programs as The Independent News. In 1986, the national INN newscast was renamed USA Tonight and aired at 10 pm, while the 7:30 p.m. program retained the Independent News title and the 10:30 p.m. local newscast was renamed New York Tonight. When INN was canceled, the 7:30 p.m. program ended as well, and WPIX focused its efforts on the 10 p.m. newscast. Over the years, channel 11 has won many news awards and was the first independent station to win a New York area Emmy award for outstanding newscast, first earning the statuette in 1979 and again in 1983. It was a significant comeback for a news operation that was accused of falsifying news reports in the late 1960s, such as labeling stock footage as being shown "via satellite", and claiming a voice report was live from Prague when it had actually been made from a pay telephone in Manhattan. As a result, Forum Communications – led by future PBS and NBC News president Lawrence K. Grossman – approached the Federal Communications Commission to challenge WPIX Inc.'s license to operate channel 11. WPIX and the Daily News prevailed in 1979 after years of litigation. Concurrent with the challenge to its license, WPIX began airing nine public-service programs in mid-1969, including Puerto Rican New Yorker, Black Pride, Suburban Closeup, Focus New Jersey, Everywoman, Rendezvous, Jewish Dimension, Sesame Street, and The Green Thumb.

On June 5, 2000, WPIX launched a weekday morning newscast, the WB11 Morning News (now the PIX 11 Morning News), which has grown to challenge the established network morning programs as well as its more direct competitor, WNYW's Good Day New York.

On April 26, 2008, WPIX became the fourth television station in New York City to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. The station resumed a half-hour early evening newscast on September 14, 2009, that ran nightly at 6:30 pm, until it was replaced by syndicated reruns on June 27, 2010. Three months later, on September 11, the station launched a weekend evening 6 p.m. newscast (making WPIX one of the few U.S. television stations to carry an early evening newscast on weekends, without an existing weekday news program in that daypart). On September 20, 2010, WPIX expanded its weekday morning newscast to five hours, with the addition of an hour at 4 am.

On October 11, 2010, newly appointed news director Bill Carey instituted controversial format changes for the newscasts in an attempt to boost the station's ratings. Carey made the newscasts flashier than they had previously been; Kaity Tong and Jim Watkins were replaced as anchors of the weeknight 10 p.m. broadcasts by Jodi Applegate, and multiple commentators and an edgy graphics and music package were introduced. The revamped newscast's first week was not well received by most viewers or critics, with the station fielding numerous complaints through phone calls, emails and Facebook comments, as well as a scathing review in the Daily News. A Facebook page was created calling for Tong and Watkins's return to the 10 pm news. WPIX's sports department was shut down in March 2011, with sports segments being reduced to a two-minute feature presented by the station's news anchors. In September 2011, WPIX relieved Watkins of his duties as weekend anchor, replacing him with Tong (who now solo anchors the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays). By late 2011, the station's newscast ratings would fall to last place. Carey, who stepped down on October 3, 2012, was replaced as news director by Mark Effron in April 2013.

On September 12, 2011, WPIX restored an early evening newscast to its weeknight schedule with the debut of an hour-long 5 p.m. broadcast, which was originally aimed at women between the ages of 18 and 49. On December 19, 2012, Jodi Applegate left WPIX, to prepare for the birth of her child through a gestational surrogate. Morning anchor Tamsen Fadal was later named her replacement; the station later restored a two-anchor format with the hiring of WNBC sports anchor Scott Stanford as Fadal's co-anchor on the 5 pm and 10 pm newscasts in September 2013. In March 2014, WPIX hired consumer reporter Arnold Diaz (who was fired by WNYW two months earlier due to the shutdown of its consumer investigative unit) to head up a new four-person investigative unit. On April 5, 2014, WPIX moved its weekend early evening newscast one hour earlier, from 6 to 5 pm.

On April 23, 2014, the station debuted a new graphics package during its 5 p.m. newscast (the opening sequences used in this package had previously debuted in January 2014, but were updated with the revamp); along with the change, the station brought back Non-Stop Music's "WPIX Custom News Package", which had previously been used as the theme for WPIX's evening newscasts from 1993 until the 2010 format change. On June 9, the station reduced the morning newscast to four hours (with the 4 a.m. hour replaced with syndicated programs) to allow the station "the flexibility to invest more resources into the key morning hours". On July 14, 2014, John Muller (who joined WPIX in 1999 and served as anchor of the morning newscast from its launch until he left for ABC News in 2011) returned to the station as evening co-anchor; Scott Stanford was reassigned to lead sports anchor (as part of a gradual reformation of the sports department that included the launch of the highlight program PIX11 Sports Desk).

During the July 2014 ratings period and again during the August 2014 ratings period, WPIX beat WNYW and WNBC, earning 3rd place in ratings only behind WABC and WCBS in the 5 p.m. timeslot among adults 25–54 (as well as in certain other demographics) for the first time since 2011; it was the only newscast in the market to make year-to-year gains in key demographics. WPIX's newscasts also saw increases in the morning and at 10 pm in the 25–54 demographic.

On April 20, 2015, WPIX debuted a 6 p.m. newscast on weekdays with current evening anchors John Muller and Tamsen Fadal. On December 8, 2015, WPIX announced the hiring of former WWOR anchor Brenda Blackmon, and the addition of a new 6:30 p.m. program, to rival the network news on the other main stations. Kaity Tong and Blackmon began anchoring the broadcast on January 11, 2016. The 6:30 p.m. newscast was cancelled in September 2016.

On April 13, 2016, WPIX made an announcement of more anchor changes preceding May Sweeps. This includes Scott Stanford moving from evening sports anchor to morning news anchor with Sukanya Krishnan. Kori Chambers, formerly on the morning show, and weekend evenings, will co-anchor with Tamsen Fadal on the weekday 5 p.m. version and handle political coverage for the station. Andy Adler, who handled weekend sports duties, will become the primary sports anchor. In addition, Kala Rama and Craig Treadway, who anchored on the weekends, will now anchor the first portion of the morning news (5–6 a.m.).

In May 2017, WPIX once again revamped its anchor lineup. The station announced that former CBS Morning News and Early Today anchor Betty Nguyen would become part of the morning news team along with a returning Dan Mannarino, with Scott Stanford once again returned to anchoring sports for the evening broadcasts. In addition, WPIX announced that it would begin featuring traffic reports from WCBS radio's Tom Kaminski, who reports from the radio station's helicopter as he does every weekday; when he files his television reports the helicopter is referred to as "Air 11".

Until the show's cancellation in spring 2022, WPIX's news studio was the home base for the daily syndicated entertainment news series Daily Mail TV from CBS Media Ventures, which WPIX carried locally. This was done to avert a costly remodeling of the Daily Mail New York bureau for television operations. WPIX only contributed technical staff to the series, and Daily Mail TV was taped using removable logos which overlay WPIX's logos on the set during 'dark' time for the studio (in breaking news situations during Daily Mail TV tapings, WPIX originated coverage from its newsroom instead).

In January 2020, WPIX expanded its morning newscast to include the 9a.m. hour. On September 14, 2020, WPIX added an hour-long 10a.m. newscast, becoming New York's only 10a.m. newscast; the newscast now runs from 4a.m. to 10a.m.

Sports programming
Since 1999, the station has been the over-the-air broadcast partner of the New York Mets. Prior to 1999, the Mets had spent their entire televised history (since 1962) with (W)WOR. WPIX, since 2013, has also simulcast some ESPN Monday Night Football telecasts involving the Giants or Jets by arrangement with WABC-TV, the main local rightsholder for the over-the-air simulcasts. WPIX has also carried NFL Network Thursday Night Football telecasts involving the Giants or Jets (mostly prior to the NFL's decision to simulcast most Thursday night games on CBS, NBC, or Fox).

WPIX served as the longtime over-the-air television broadcaster of New York Yankees baseball from 1951 to 1998. Mel Allen served as the primary announcer for the broadcasts, Red Barber from 1954 to 1966, Phil Rizzuto from 1957 to 1996, and Bobby Murcer from 1997 to 1998. With his "Holy Cow!" catchphrase, Rizzuto became very popular especially through the 1970s. WPIX lost the broadcast rights for the Yankees to WNYW in 1998, more so the result of regional cable sports networks (in this case, MSG) gaining team broadcast rights, leaving broadcast stations with fewer games to air. In 2015, the Yankees returned to WPIX after a 17-year absence, having picked up YES Network's package of over-the-air Yankees broadcasts, replacing WWOR-TV. These games co-existed with WPIX's existing Mets broadcasts (produced by SportsNet New York). In 2022, these games left WPIX for Amazon Prime Video.

At various points, WPIX also aired Major League Baseball's New York Giants, the New York Football Giants and New York Jets, professional wrestling from 1984 to 1991 from various companies such as Pro Wrestling USA, AWA All Star Wrestling, UWF, NWA/WCW Worldwide and Pro, GLOW and briefly WWF (now WWE) from late 1998 to early 1999, the NHL's New York Rangers, the MISL's New York Arrows and local college basketball. However, it was through its coverage of Yankees baseball that WPIX gained perhaps its greatest fame and identity.

In March 2017, it was announced that WPIX would air selected New York Cosmos soccer games beginning in the 2017 season.

In 2021, WPIX aired two Brooklyn Nets playoff games. The Nets' usual network, YES, was airing a Yankees game instead.

Notable current on-air staff

 * Ben Aaron – anchor; New York Living host
 * Ernie Anastos – Positively America host (formely WWOR)
 * Marysol Castro – anchor, New York Living host
 * Chris Cimino – meteorologist, New York Living Host
 * Kendis Gibson – anchor
 * Irv "Mr. G" Gikofsky - meteorologist
 * Allison Kaden – general assignment reporter
 * Byron Miranda – meteorologist
 * John Muller – weekend morning anchor; fill-in and substitute weekday/weekend anchor
 * Jill Nicolini – fill in traffic/entertainment anchor
 * Kaity Tong – weekend anchor
 * Craig Treadway – weekend morning anchor/reporter

Notable former on-air staff

 * Craig Allen (AMS Seal of Approval) – meteorologist - 2010-2020
 * Jodi Applegate – 2010–2012
 * Brenda Blackmon
 * Remy Blumenfeld
 * Joe Bolton – deceased
 * Sharon Carpenter – 2010–2011
 * Jack Cafferty – 1992–1998; now retired
 * Jason Carroll – now at CNN
 * Julie Chang – now at KTTV in Los Angeles
 * Linda Church – 1990–2017; now retired
 * Morton Dean – 1985–1987; now retired
 * Vince DeMentri
 * Laurie Dhue
 * Arnold Díaz – investigative reporter; retired March 2022, deceased
 * Tom Ellis – host of NewsWorthy; deceased
 * Amber Lee Ettinger
 * Tamsen Fadal – 2008–2023; now retired
 * Emily Frances – 2001–2010
 * Shon Gables – now at WANF in Atlanta
 * Jerry Girard – 1974–1995; deceased
 * Donna Hanover – 1983–1990
 * Pat Harper – 1975–1985; deceased
 * Cathy Hobbs – 1997–2009
 * Richard N. Hughes – deceased
 * Jackie Hyland – 2000–2005 and 2007–2011; last at WRAL-TV
 * Bill Jorgensen – 1979–1987; deceased
 * Marvin Kitman – 1973–1974; now retired
 * Sukanya Krishnan – 2001–2003 and 2005–2017; last at WNYW
 * Shari Lewis – deceased
 * Lionel – 2009–2015
 * Lynda Lopez – now midday anchor on 1010 WINS
 * Patricia Lopez
 * Jeffrey Lyons – 1970–1991
 * Sal Marchiano – 1995–2008; now retired
 * Chuck McCann – deceased
 * Jack McCarthy – deceased
 * Myles Miller – 2015–2017; now at WNBC
 * Kaitlin Monte – 2014–2016; last at KRIV in Houston
 * Felonious Munk – 2011–2012
 * Melinda Murphy – 2000–2002
 * Shimon Prokupecz – 2004–2009
 * Sally Jessy Raphael
 * Frances Rivera – 2011–2013; now at NBC News and MSNBC
 * Bobby Rivers – 1986–1987; deceased
 * Tim Ryan – now retired
 * Bonnie Schneider
 * Toni Senecal – 2001–2005; now at WLNY-TV
 * Eric Shawn – now at Fox News
 * Joya Sherrill – 1970–1982; deceased
 * Scott Stanford – 2013–2019; now morning anchor at 1010 WINS
 * David Susskind – deceased
 * Allen Swift – deceased
 * Peter Thorne – 2001–2011
 * Jim Watkins – 1998–2011

Public affairs and special events
WPIX specialized in public affairs and special event programming, inspired by its roots under the ownership of the Daily News. Early on, it offered the first in-depth program to look at New York City government, City Hall. WPIX children's show personality Jack McCarthy anchored the station's coverage of the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade; the station later added the Columbus Day and National Puerto Rican Day Parade to its stable of events. Later on, the station produced Essence, a series inspired by Essence magazine and hosted by the magazine's chief editor, Susan L. Taylor. The station also aired the Macy's 4th of July fireworks event. Along with the New York City Marathon, these events moved to WNBC (channel 4) after the station joined The WB. Since 2000, the Macy's fireworks event has been carried nationally on NBC, while WABC-TV (locally) and ESPN2 (nationally outside the New York City area) broadcast the Marathon.

Special guest Coby Kranz was invited onto the daily news segment on his 11th birthday, because he was one of the only people to turn 11 on 11/11/11.

Editor's Desk host Richard D. Heffner served as host of The Open Mind, which was produced by WPIX (and was concurrently aired on PBS member stations), before moving to other New York studios. Since 1992, WPIX has produced PIX News Closeup (hosted by WPIX senior correspondent Marvin Scott since its debut), a half-hour public affairs and interview program on Sunday mornings that focuses on domestic and international issues in the news, and discussions on political issues.

Subchannels
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed signals of other New York City television stations: {{legend|#f2d1de|Subchannel broadcast with MPEG-4 video}}

Analog-to-digital conversion
WPIX discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, at 12:30 p.m. on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 33 to VHF channel 11. WCBS-TV took over the channel 33 allocation as it moved its digital signal from channel 56 as a result of the phaseout of channels 52–69.

On January 1, 2011, Tribune launched its new digital broadcast network, Antenna TV, which affiliated with WPIX through a new fourth digital subchannel. In May 2012, WPIX moved Antenna TV to digital subchannel 11.2, while digital channel 11.4 was removed (Estrella TV, which was carried on 11.2 at the time, is now affiliated with Port Jervis low-power station WASA-LD, which is owned by the network's parent company Estrella Media). 11.4 returned to the air in 2018 as an affiliate of TBD. On September 1, 2021, 11.4 switched to Nexstar–owned classic network Rewind TV. On October 28, 2019, Court TV launched on 11.3, replacing This TV. On April 1, 2023, 11.3 switched to Grit.

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title: WPIX