Adolfo Martí Fuentes

Professor at the University of La Habana and National Director of Literature of the former National Council of Culture. He was the first winner of the Cucalambé contest. He won the décima Prize in the 26 de Julio contest with his book Alrededor del punto, which represented an important milestone in the trajectory of written décima.

He was born in El Ferrol, La Coruña, Galicia, Spain in 1922. He arrived in Cuba in 1923. He died in La Habana in 2002.

As a young man he became involved with various political-social organizations, including the Communist Youth League and the Youth Group of the People. Later he was a member of the Cuban Communist Party. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Sciences and Letters in 1943 from the Instituto de La Habana and a degree in Hispanic Language and Literature.

In the second half of the 1940s, he published his first poems in the Sunday magazine of the newspaper Hoy. Between 1945 and 1950 he worked as an Administrative Assistant at Editorial Páginas. Subsequently he worked as a cashier-paymaster, sales representative, and commercial researcher, among other positions.

In 1955 he obtained First Mention in Poetry in a contest by the Association of Writers and Journalists of Artemisa dedicated to Antonio Maceo. From that same year until 1957, when he went into exile in Mexico, he was director of Jornadas, the organ of the Cuban Movement for Peace. During this period he also collaborated in La Discusión, Tiempo en Cuba and Nuestro Tiempo.

He returned to Cuba at the Triumph of the Revolution and worked in the Ministry of Finance and as a proofreader and editor of the newspaper Hoy (1959-1960).

In 1959 he won the Unique Prize in Poetry "Ernesto Fernández Arrondo". Between 1960 and 1964 he carried out diplomatic missions in Panama, Ecuador, Czechoslovakia and Brazil. He was also Head of the Department of Asian Socialist Countries at MINREX (1964-1966).

Later he taught Literature at the School of Cultural Activists (1967-1968), earned a degree in Hispanic Language and Literature from the University of La Habana (1969), where he was a professor in the schools of Letters and Journalism (1969-1973).

Between 1973 and 1977 he held the position of National Director of Literature at the CNC and was a member of the editorial board of Revolución y Cultura. Later he served as an Advisor of Literature and Art at the Cuban Book Institute (1977) and as a Documentalist for the International Relations Secretariat of UNEAC (1977-1980).

He attended national and foreign cultural events and congresses and was a judge in various contests. In 1961 he joined UNEAC and in 1982 he was granted membership in the Communist Party of Cuba.

He made several translations of Portuguese authors and Czech, Slovak and Soviet poets. Part of his work has been translated into Vietnamese, Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian. His texts appeared in Verde Olivo, Mujeres, Vanguardia (Santa Clara), 5 de Septiembre (Cienfuegos), Unión, Casa de las Américas and Juventud Rebelde, among others, as well as in publications from Panama, Czechoslovakia, USSR, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Viet-Nam, GDR, and Syria.

He was responsible for the selection and introduction of Masterworks: El Cancionero, Francesco Petrarca (1973) and some prefaces, among them to Gabriela, Clavo y canela (1975) by Jorge Amado, El rumbo de mi sangre (1979) by Efraín Riverón and La Celestina (1982) by Fernando Rojas.

He also developed thematic works in Cuadernos, such as "Giordano Bruno and Blas Pascal" and "French Classical Theater" (1974).

Some of his works were anthologized in Para el concurso 26 de julio (1962), Truyen Ngún Cuba (Viet Nam, 1964), Poesía de la Revolución cubana (Peru, 1973), 10 poetas de la Revolución (1975), Poesía social cubana (1980) and Por siempre el pecho fiel (1983).

Awards and Distinctions
He received the décima prize in the "26 de Julio" contest (1971) with Alrededor del punto and children's poetry and poetry (1978-1979) at UNEAC with Por el ancho camino and Puntos cardinales, respectively.

For his cultural and political trajectory he received numerous recognitions, including the Distinction for National Culture (1983). He was designated National Vanguard of the Union of Workers of Culture in 1984. From this year until his retirement in 1986, he was Editor-in-Chief of Ediciones Unión.

In 1957 he is editor of the newspaper Jornadas, he goes into exile in Mexico and returns to Cuba in 1959.

He works as an editor in the newspaper Hoy. He serves as a diplomat for Cuba in Panama, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador and Brazil, in 1965 he holds the position of Head of Department of Asian Socialist Countries in the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Cuba.

He holds a degree in Hispanic Languages and Literature from the School of Letters of the University of La Habana.

He obtains awards: from the Association of Journalists and Writers of Artemisa in 1955 and the 26 de Julio Contest of the FAR in 1971 with his book Alrededor del punto which was published with a prologue by fellow poet Raúl Luís by the Political Direction of the FAR in 1971.

He publishes in Nuestro Tiempo, Verde Olivo, Mujeres and in the magazine Hoy Domingo.
He makes translations from Portuguese which he later publishes in Juventud Rebelde.
His work has been translated into Russian and Vietnamese.

Active Bibliography
Alrededor del punto. (Décima), 85 pp, 1971.
Contrapuntos (poetry), 72 pp, 1980.
Puntos cardinales (poetry), 81 pp, 1980.
Por el ancho camino (poetry), 39 pp, 1981.
La hora en punto (poetry), 238 pp, 1983.
Libro de Gabriela (poetry), 76 pp, 1985.
Puntos de vista (essay), 150 pp, 1988.
El árbol del retorno (poetry), 1993.

Passive Bibliography
López Lemus, Virgilio: "Punctuality of Poetry. Eleven Notes", UH, pp. 314-318, Sep-Dec, 1984.
Prats Sariol, José: "Around the Décima" and "For a Wide Path: Impression and Parenthesis", in his By Cuban Poetry, p. 181-182 and 183-185, respectively, 1988.
Reyes, Nilo: "Around the Décima", CAI BAR, pp. 27-28, Jan, 1972. Rodríguez Rivera, Guillermo: "Notes After the Point", in University of La Habana, pp. 347-351, no. 196-197, 1972.
Santos Moray, Mercedes: "Dotting the i's", in Unión, pp. 165-166, Oct-Dec, 1983.