Aniceto Valdivia

An illustrious writer, journalist, poet, critic, lecturer, playwright, and diplomat who, under the pseudonym Conde Kostia, revealed himself as one of the most interesting and representative figures of Cuban culture in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century.

He studied higher education in Spain and took his first steps in journalism there at El Imparcial (1882) and the magazine Madrid Cómico. He arrived in Havana in 1886 and joined the editorial staff of El País. He later worked at La Lucha, and his pseudonym Conde Kostia appeared in the pages of that newspaper, which covered theatrical events of the era.

The revolutionary upheaval of 1895 forced him to emigrate to Mexico, where he directed El Imparcial. After the war ended, he returned to Cuba and to the newspaper La Lucha. He held diplomatic posts and later collaborated with El Heraldo de Cuba and El Mundo. For more than five decades, Conde Kostia published his work, which is scattered today among numerous national and foreign publications. Sometimes under his true name, other times using the pseudonyms Kond Kostya, A La Vía, and VLDVIA.

He was born on the sugar plantation Mapo, in Sancti Spíritus. As a child, he moved to Santiago de Cuba, as his father, a military physician in service of the colony, was transferred to that city for work reasons. There he completed his childhood and went through adolescence, which were greatly influenced by the teachings of the Jesuit Catholic priest Father Ramón Ortigueira. The boy's intelligence led the priest to devote all his effort and fortune to his education. Thus, he completed his Bachelor's degree at the Instituto Cuba in that eastern city. At only 14 years old, in 1871, he traveled to Spain with his mother.

He pursued studies at the University of Santiago de Compostela and at the University of Madrid, where he obtained the degree of Licentiate in Law in 1881.

He was well received in the Madrid literary world. He collaborated in El Globo, El Pabellón Nacional, Madrid Cómico, Los Lunes de El Imparcial. In January 1880 he read in Madrid his three-act drama in verse, "Senda de abrojos." He premiered at the Teatro Alhambra, in April 1882, "La ley suprema," and at the Teatro Apolo, "La muralla de hielo."

He accepted an administrative position in Puerto Rico, but abandoned it shortly after. Back in Cuba, Ricardo del Monte introduced him to El País. Associated with Casal, the Uhrbach brothers, and Juana Borrero, he developed significant cultural activity in Havana. He formed a close friendship with Rubén Darío during the latter's visits to Cuba. He directed El Palenque Literario. He collaborated in La Lucha, La Habana Elegante, El Fígaro, El Triunfo, Revista Cubana, El Hogar. He was tried and imprisoned for "grave offenses against the Mother Country."

When war broke out in 1895, he emigrated to Mexico, where he founded the newspaper El Imparcial. Shortly after, he settled in New York until the advent of the Republic (1902). He was Cuba's minister to Norway and Brazil. Haakon VII of Norway decorated him with the Grand Cross of Saint Olaf. During this period he collaborated in Letras, Cuba y América, Heraldo de Cuba, El Mundo, Diario de la Marina, Gráfico, Social. He was a full member of the Literature Section of the National Academy of Arts and Letters. He co-wrote the comedies "Expropiación forzosa" and "La institutriz," the first with Eduardo Lustanó and the second with Eduardo Navarro González. He translated El grupo de los idilios, La leyenda de los siglos, and Poemas, by Víctor Hugo; "Esmaltes y Camafeos," by Teófilo Gautier; "Ruiseñora," by Catulle Mendés; and the book Traducción en verso castellano de Yámbicos y de Lázaro, by Augusto Barbier.

He died on January 28, 1927.