# Sergio Ángel Chaple Mesa

**Date of birth:** October 2, 1938

**Date of death:** May 30, 2019

**Categories:** Arts, literature, narrator

Cuban poet native of La Habana. He has participated as a judge in literary contests and collaborated with various Cuban publications such as Alma Mater, El Caimán Barbudo. His most notable work is the book Hacia otra luz más pura.

Student of a religious school, where he completed his primary studies. He completed his secondary education at the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de La Víbora.

Graduate of the Bachelor's degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the Escuela de Letras of the Universidad de La Habana. He studied Stylistics at the Carolina University of Praga.

Sergio Chaple obtained awards in the Rubén Martínez Villena contest of the Escuela de Letras, in the National Inter-University Contest, and in the Luis Felipe Rodríguez of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.

He is a short story judge in national contests for university amateurs. He collaborates in Casa de las Américas, Unión, El Caimán Barbudo, La Gaceta de Cuba, etc. He works as a literary researcher at the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística, where he is responsible for the Literature group.

He has been a short story judge in the contests of University Amateurs, Juventud Rebelde, OCLAE, Federation of Cuban Women, "David" and "Luis Felipe Rodríguez" of UNEAC, Casa de las Américas, "26 de Julio" of MINFAR. He has collaborated in Alma Mater, El Caimán Barbudo, Cultura '65, La Gaceta de Cuba, Unión, El Placer de Leer, Casa de las Américas, Santiago, Anuario L/L, Marcha (Montevideo), Siempre (México), Romboid (Checoslovaquia). Some of his short stories have been translated into Bulgarian, Czech, German, Russian, and Slovak.

He has been anthologized several times in Cuba and abroad. He works as a literary researcher at the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística of the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, of whose Literature Group he is responsible.

Bachelor of Letters from the Universidad de La Habana, he became part of the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística of the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba. Doctor of the Literature Section of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba.

Full professor at the high center of studies of the capital and at the Instituto Superior Pedagógico Enrique José Varona, Chaple conducted important research, among which stand out Studies of Cuban Literature, Notes on the Martian presence in the work of Alejo Carpentier, and Craft of Revealing. In his narrative works are recognized the short story collections You Can Indeed Have a Buick, Toward Another Purer Light, The Other Cheek, How the Fifteenth Birthday Party of Eugenia de Pardo and Pardo Came to Be, and The Happy Side of the Heart. To these are added countless publications including criticism and literary essays.

He received the Uneac Prize for Short Story Luis Felipe Rodríguez and for Essay Enrique José Varona, the Mirta Aguirre Critics Prize, in addition to Razón de Ser, and besides other recognitions and honors was finalist in the Casa de las Américas Contest.

He has been a short story judge in the contests of University Amateurs, Juventud Rebelde, OCLAE, Federation of Cuban Women, David and Luis Felipe Rodríguez, of Uneac, Casa de las Américas, and 26 de Julio, of MINFAR. He has collaborated in Alma Mater, El Caimán Barbudo, Cultura '65, La Gaceta de Cuba, Unión, El Placer de Leer, Casa de las Américas, Santiago, Anuario L/L, Marcha (Montevideo), Siempre (México), Romboid (Checoslovaquia). Some of his short stories have been translated into Bulgarian, Czech, German, Russian, and Slovak. He has been anthologized several times in Cuba and abroad. Member of the Communist Party of Cuba and of Uneac, he worked as a literary researcher at the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística of the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, of whose Literature Group he was responsible.

He gave lectures and represented Cuba at universities and cultural institutions in Viet Nam (by the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, 1975); German Democratic Republic (Humboldt University, 1977; University of Leipzig, 1977); Moscow (International Book Fair, 1977); United States (Columbia University; 8th International Convention of the Association of Latin American Studies (LASA), Pittsburgh, 1979; Baruch College, Hunter College, Saint John's University, University of Pittsburgh, 1997); France (International Scientific Colloquium of the U.E.R. of Iberian and Latin American Studies The Short Story in Current Latin American Literature, sponsored by La Sorbona, Paris, 1980, University of Nice, 2001 and 2002; University of Aix-en Provence, 2001 and 2002; International Colloquium on the occasion of the centenary of Alejo Carpentier, Bordeaux, 2004; Lectures on Alejo Carpentier on the occasion of the centenary of his birth (La Sorbona, Poitiers, Toulouse, Tarbes, and Marseille, 2004), and many more.

Similarly, he taught seminars and summer courses sponsored by the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, Universidad de Oriente, and the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute (IPLAC), and received postgraduate training on Literary Historiography at the Academies of Sciences of the USSR, Checoslovakia, and Hungary. In 1988, he traveled to Madrid, where he expanded his studies on narratology. As a translator, he brought to the Spanish language works of literary theory written by Jan Mukarovsky, Miklos Szabolcsi, and Oldrich Belic, as well as the volume on Alejo Carpentier Les larmes de Clio, by Jean-Louis Joachim. His stories have been translated into English, French, Russian, German, Bulgarian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Icelandic, and Italian.

He became known as a writer by obtaining in 1964 and 1965 respectively the Rubén Martínez Villena Prize, from the Escuela de Letras of the Universidad de La Habana, and the National Inter-University Contest, both in the Short Story genre.

In 1994 he was awarded the distinction Por la Cultura Nacional; in 1996 the Medal Thirtieth Anniversary of the Instituto Superior Pedagógico Enrique José Varona; in 1999 the Orden Carlos J. Finlay, the highest distinction in the scientific order granted by the Cuban State, and in 2004 the distinction Juan Tomás Roig, of the National Union of Science Workers.

Active Bibliography
You Can Indeed Have a Buick (short stories), Instituto del Libro, 1969.
Rafael María Mendive. Definition of a Poet, Ediciones Unión, 1973.
Toward Another Purer Light, UNIÓN, 1975.

Passive Bibliography
Augier Ángel. Inquiry into Mendive, in Anuario L/L. La Habana, (3-4): 233-234, 1972-1973.
Ávila, Leopoldo, pseud. of?. The Pluma en Ristre Collection, in Verde Olivo. La Habana, 10 (21): 17, May 25, 1969.
Casáus, Víctor. Heras and Chaple: One Step Beyond the Promise, in Pensamiento Crítico. La Habana, (31): 175-185, Aug., 1969.
Claro, Elsa. You Can Indeed (impressionist chronicle about a new book), in Juventud Rebelde. La Habana, :4, May 28, 1969.
Dubcova, Viera. 3.20 Popoludni, in Romboid. Bratislava (Checoslovaquia), 9 (1): 29, [Jan.], 1974.
Martori, Raquel. Toward Another Purer Light. Sergio Chaple (prize winner in the UNEAC 1974 Contest) talks about this work, his work, immediate plans, in Juventud Rebelde. La Habana, :3, Jan. 10, 1975.
Navarro, Noel. Toward Another Purer Light, in El Caimán Barbudo. La Habana, 2nd period, (95): 29-30, Oct., 1975.
Otero, José Manuel. Marcial Arana in You Can Indeed Have a Buick, in Granma. La Habana, 5 (155): 5, Jul. 1, 1969.
Rodríguez, Luis Enrique. Structuralism and Rafael María de Mendive, in Universidad de La Habana. La Habana, (198-199): 207-210, Jan.-Feb., 1973.
Suárez, Adolfo. For a Criticism That Does Not Adulterate Human Values [Interview], in El Caimán Barbudo. La Habana, 2nd period, (94): 10-11, Sep., 1975.
Torriente, Loló de la. The University Stimulates Young Writers, in El Mundo del Domingo. El Mundo. La Habana, :5, Nov 26, 1965; Youth in Unión, in El Mundo. La Habana, 63 (21 157): 4, Dec. 31, 1964

Awards and Distinctions
He obtained short story awards in the "Rubén Martínez Villena" contests, from the Escuela de Letras y de Arte (1964), in the National Inter-University Contest (1965), and in the "Luis Felipe Rodríguez" of UNEAC (1974), the latter with his book Toward Another Purer Light.