Lawyer, anthropologist, historian, sociologist, outstanding ethnographer, author, publisher, and intellectual. Born in Havana of a Spanish father and Cuban mother, Ortiz grew up on Minorca, Spain, returning to Cuba in 1894. He studied at the University of Havana and at the Universidad Central of Madrid, where he received his doctorate of civil law in 1901, becoming …
Labor leader. Son of a Catalan bank employee from Guantánamo, he joined the Unión Revolucionaria Comunista in 1930, but later severed his communist affiliation to become secretary general of Joven Cuba in 1934. In 1938, he joined the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Auténtico) and became prominent as a labor agitator. In 1948, he succeeded Lázaro Peña as secretary general of the Confederación de …
Lawyer. As president of the Cuban bar association, he supported the call for President Fulgencio Batista to step down in1956. He was also influential in the so-called Diálogo Cívico, intended to find a peaceful solution to the Cuban government crisis. Miró Cardona was forced to seek asylum in the Uruguayan Embassy in Havana in 1958, after …
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 …
Manuel Márquez Sterling y Loret de Mola (1872-1934) Read More »
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 …
