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 …
Havana-born poet, essayist, and lawyer. Attracted early to writing, he helped found the literary magazines Verbum (1937), Espuela de plata (1939), and Orígenes (1944) while at the University of Havana. Possessed of an extensive culture and immense vocabulary, he attempted to create a universal poetic system in the collections Muerte de Narciso (1937), La Fijeza (1949), and Dador (1960). His Paradiso (1966) is considered one of the most important …
Cuban painter born in Sagua la Grande of Chinese and Black parents. His contact with African, Chinese, and Spanish culture in his birthplace was recreated in such paintings as La Jungla where Western details combined with exotic and mystic tones of Africa and China. He studied in the Academia de San Alejandro and held several exhibitions in Havana in …
Pianist and composer. A child prodigy who is known to have played the piano at the age five. He had a superb technique as a pianist, giving piano recitals and popularizing Cuban and Afro-Cuban melodies in North and South America, France, and Spain. His most famous composition is the operetta María la O; others include El Cafetal, …
Founder of the Partido del Pueblo (Ortodoxo). Son of a wealthy Santiago engineer, “Eddy” became a prominent student leader, and one of the originators of the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario. Graduating in law, his sharp criticism of Gerardo Machado’s government led to imprisonment, December 1931-December 1932, followed by exile in Miami. He returned following Machado’s downfall to support the …
Eduardo René Chibás y Ribas Agramonte (1907-1951) Read More »
President of Cuba, 1948-1952. Born in Bahía Honda, he became involved in politics at an early age, becoming active in the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario while studying law at the University of Havana in the 1930s. He was elected to the constitutional convention of 1939 and to the senate in 1940. He served as prime minister in 1945 …
President of Cuba, 1940-44 and Dictator, 1952-1958 and Cuban strong man from the Sergeants’ revolt of 1933 to the Revolution of 1959. Born in Banes, Oriente province, January 16, the son of a sugar cane cutter, he spent his early years in poverty and attended a Quaker missionary school. After leaving school he worked as …
President of Cuba, January 15-17, 1934. Born March 21, he participated in World War I aboard the U.S.S. Missouri and graduated in engineering at Annapolis Naval Academy in 1919. On his return to Cuba, he entered politics, opposing President Machado to the extent of leading an expedition defeated at Gibara. In 1933 President Grau appointed …
