Cintio Vitier

Cintio Vitier (born September 25, 1921 in Key West , Florida , † October 1, 2009 in Havana ) was a Cuban poet .

Vitier, who was born in Florida to Cuban parents, published his first volume of poems "Poemas" as early as 1938 at the age of 17 with an introduction by the Spanish poet and later Nobel laureate in literature , Juan Ramón Jiménez , who also selected the poems.

In addition to his work as a poet, he was also a novelist , literary critic and literary scholar and as such one of the founders of the literary magazine "Origen", one of the most important publications of its kind in Latin America , edited by José Lezama Lima .

Other volumes of poetry he wrote were:

• "Testimonios", 1968 ( anthology of the works from 1953 to 1968)
• "La Fecha al Pie", 1981 (works from 1969 to 1975)
• "Antologia Poetica", 1981
• "Hojas Perdidizas", 1988
• "Poemas de Mayo a Junio", 1990

Vitier was also active as a professor , devoting himself for many years to the work of the hero of the Cuban War of Independence of 1895, José Martí, and for many years was the director of the Center for Martí Studies.

He has received several awards for his services to Cuban culture . In 1988 he and Dora Alonso received the " Premio Nacional de Literatura de Cuba " and in 2002 the Juan Rulfo Prize . He was also awarded the José Martí Order and the Cuban Academy of Sciences medal. He also received honorary doctorates from the University of Havana , the Universidad Central de Las Villas and the Sōka University , a private Japanese university in Hachiōji in the west of Tokyo Prefecture .

In April 2003, Vitier was among a group of prominent Cuban cultural worker, the one in the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party , Granma signed, published open letter, which was addressed to friends of Cuba throughout the world and international criticism of the human rights policy of the Cuban government as anti-Cuba smear campaign rejected: In the previous weeks, President Fidel Castro had sentenced 75 critical journalists and civil rights activists to long prison terms in a wave of arrests known as the " Black Spring " and had three young black Cubans executed after the bloodlessly unsuccessful attempt to hijack a ship.

Vitier was married for many years to the poet Fina García-Marruz , who also received the Cuban National Literature Prize in 1990.

Web links

• LATIN AMERICAN HERALD TRIBUNE: "Cuban Intellectual Cintio Vitier Passes Away at 88"
• Literature by and about Cintio Vitier in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Message from Havana for our friends far away (PDF; 7 kB) from: Friendship Society BRD - Cuba eV , accessed on June 27, 2011, Spanish version here
2. ↑ Hijackers executed by ferry in Cuba In: Der Tagesspiegel of April 13, 2003, accessed on June 27, 2011