Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, June 9. - The universe of letters and intellectuality in Cuba remembers a towering figure today, as we commemorate the 95th anniversary of the birth of the notable poet and essayist Roberto Fernández Retamar (1930-2019).
National Prize for Poetry (1952) and Literature (1989), the Doctor of Philological Sciences not only carried out a rich and extraordinary literary work, also an outstanding work as cultural promoter at the head of various institutions such as Casa de las Américas, who presided until the last breath of life.
His literary work is so extensive that one page is not enough to reflect it, although his most significant texts are Happy the Normals and Caliban. His poems and essays appear in anthologies and collective volumes published in several languages ??and countries around the world.
He also wrote texts for films by Armand Gattí, Santiago Álvarez, Julio García Espinosa and Alejandro Saderman. Meanwhile, his life and work have been reflected in three documentaries, one filmed in Spain and two in Cuba. Among his many responsibilities, he was a member of the Cuban Academy of Language, which he directed from 2008 to 2012, and a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy.
In addition to the aforementioned awards, he holds the National Prize for Cultural Research (2007) and the Social Sciences Prize (2012); the Rubén Darío Latin American Poetry Prize (1980) in Nicaragua; the Nikola Vaptsarov International Poetry Prize (1989) in Bulgaria; and the 2019 José Martí International Prize, awarded by UNESCO.
This Monday, Casa de las Américas is planning a program to evoke the figure and imprint of the man who inhabits, in spirit and thought, this important Cuban cultural fortress. (Text and photo: PL)
