María Martina de Pierra y Agüero was born in Camagüey on 8 February 1833, the daughter of Simón Joseph de Pierra y Ruiz del Canto, an infantry lieutenant in the Spanish Army, and María Francisca del Rosario de Agüero y Arteaga.

[2] Shortly before July 1851, she sent the sonnet A los Camagüeyanos al endergarles su Bandera to her uncle Joaquín de Agüero, a Cuban independence activist and abolitionist activist.

On 4 July 1851, she joined him in a pro-independence revolt, dressed as a male soldier.

[5] She left for Havana in 1859, where she began her career as an actress, starring as the protagonist in Tomás Rodríguez Rubí [es]'s drama La trenza de sus cabellos and soon after in the play Borrascas del corazón.

[9] In 1899, the Patriotic Ladies' Association (Spanish: Asociación de Damas Patrióticas) was founded, of which Martina was vice-president.