From an early age, during his elementary school years, José Jacinto Milanés showed an impressive talent in literature.

His father, despite the poor means of living, presented him with a gift, which was a book titled El tesoro del parnaso Español (The Treasure of the Spanish Parnassus), a compilation of poems authored by the poet Manuel José Quintana.

[4][7] Milanés started working since a young age, first as a clerk while living in Matanzas, and later as a blacksmith's helper in Havana.

A few years later, in 1837, Milanés 's first poems were published in Havana by Ramón de Palma and José Antonio Echevarría in the Aguinaldo Habanero, a literary magazine.

In the words of his longtime friend but literary critic nonetheless, Domingo del Monte, who was quoted saying after the publication of the book, that it was "the first writing in Cuba by a Cuban… in which genius is discovered.