Cuban Studies Institute

Painter. Born June 23, on the outskirts of Havana, he was an only child. His painting influences were derived from his growing up beside the sea. At age 16 he began to study at the Academia de San Alejandro. In 1944 he received the national prize for painting for his work Alameda, after which his career accelerated. […]

Pioneer feminist, she founded the Alianza Nacional Feminista in 1920 and the first women’s club, the Lyceum, in 1929, with co-founder Berta Arocena de Martínez Márquez. Her aims were political (female suffrage), intellectual, and social. From 1928-1949 she was Cuban delegate to five Pan-American conferences and president of the Hispanic-Cuban Cultural Institute, The Cuban Foundation for Social

Politician, poet, and short story writer, born December 20 in Alquizar, Havana province.  He became a doctor of civil law of the University of Havana in 1913.  He wrote his best-known poem, “Canción del sainete póstumo” in 1922 and began to emerge as a poet of quality with anti-American inclinations.  He was for a while secretary to

Journalist, diplomat, and author, born in the Cuban legation in Lima, Peru, to distinguished parents from a Camagüey family.  In 1900 he was secretary to Gonzalo de Quesada during the Washington negotiations for the establishment of the República de Cuba, and then took charge of Cuba’s participation in the Paris World Fair. He tied for 16-17th in

A poet of the negrismo school who later became a leader of the Partido Socialista Popular.  He obtained a doctorate of Civil and public law at the University of Havana, took part in the Protesta de los Trece, and was elected first vice-president of Falange de Acción Cubana.  This involvement led to his arrest in May 1923.  He edited the

One of Cuba’s most distinguished intellectuals, whose writings criticized civic indolence and the passive acceptance of American tutelage over political and economic life.  Born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba.  In 1923 he joined the Protesta de los Trece.  A Harvard-educated Professor at the University of Havana, he became an A.B.C. leader, drafting the group’s program for

Student leader and revolutionary, also known as “Manzanita,” born in Cárdenas, where he attended the Marist Brothers’ school and the public high school.  He entered the University of Havana’s architecture school and soon became involved in student and national politics.  He became one of the leading opponents of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship, and as president of

Leading Cuban painter, born in Havana, he was educated in Cuba and Mexico.  He executed several murals in Cuba and Puerto Rico.  Many of his works have been shown also in Peru, Chile, Haiti, Venezuela, New York, and Miami.  He has exhibited in the biennials of São Paulo and Venice.   His works are found in

Powerful sugar baron with 14 ingenios in Oriente province whose plantation, Niquero, served as a rendezvous for bands of Fidel Castro’s forces.  Lobo gave Batista’s opposition $50,000 in 1957, although not specifically to Castro himself.  At least half was used by Justo Carrillo’s abortive rising in Cienfuegos.  By 1959 Lobo owned a million acres and had a reputation

Aurelio Álvarez de la Vega was born in Camagüey in 1881. As a teenager he joined the Cuban Liberation Army. At the end of the war he was a member of the Board of Education. He got his start in politics as a member of the Conservative Party, of which he became vice president. He was