Agustín Acosta Bello

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He is one of the most celebrated Cuban writers of the twentieth century. A Cuban writer belonging to the group of postmodern poets of the 1920s, who anticipated to a certain extent the artistic and social upheavals of the following decade.

He completed his primary education and secondary school in Matanzas, his native city. From a very young age he began working as a railroad telegraph operator. He was head of the telegraph service in Matanzas and Havana (1909-1920). In 1912 he held a position in the Presidential Palace.

In the years 1913, 1914 and 1915 he obtained Flores Naturales in floral competitions held in Santiago de Cuba and Havana. He graduated with a Doctor's degree in Civil Law from the University of Havana in 1918; later, in 1921, he obtained the title of notary public. He established himself as a notary in Jagüey Grande (Matanzas).

During the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado he suffered political imprisonment. Upon the fall of the Machado regime he was appointed provisional governor of Matanzas (1933-1934). In the Mendieta government he held the position of secretary of the presidency. From 1936 to 1944 he was a senator of the Republic. He presided over the Nationalist Union Party (1936-1937). He also worked as a notary public in Havana. He visited the United States (1953).

He was a contributor to Letras, El Fígaro (where he published his first poems), El Cubano Libre, Orto, Social, Carteles, Diario de la Marina, Las Antillas, Ariel, Archipiélago and other important newspapers and magazines. On occasions he presided over the Ateneo de Matanzas.

Member of the defunct Academy of Arts and Letters—into which he was admitted with the speech Federico Uhrbach. The Mountains: Peaks of Matter. The Poets: Peaks of the Spirit (Havana, Molina, 1938), compiled with the response from Dulce María Borrero de Luján, from the Cuban Academy of Language and the Bar Association and the Notarial College, of Matanzas. Along with Regino Boti and José Manuel Poveda he is one of the representatives of the lyrical renaissance that took place in the provinces before the 1920s.

He was named National Poet by the Cuban Congress in 1955. Some of his poems have been translated into French. He left unpublished his translations of poems by Baudelaire, Verlaine, Lamartine, et cetera, as well as books of poetry and prose.

For family reasons he left the Island with his wife in December 1972 to be with his daughter. He died in the city of Miami, Florida on March 12, 1979.

Works:
1915 Poemas de Ala (poems)
1923 Hermanita (poems)
1926 La zafra
1936 Los camellos distantes
1941 Las islas desoladas
1941 Los últimos instantes