Dulcila Cañizares

Born in Santiago de las Vegas, she is a professor of piano, music theory, and solfège; she studied harmony, music history, and Italian. She is a researcher of Cuban music, essayist, poet, and editor.

She graduated as a teacher from the Escuela Normal de Kindergarten (1956), in music from the Conservatorio Falcón, and in Italian from the Círculo Cultural Italo-cubano.

After the triumph of the Revolution, she worked as a journalist in the magazine Cuba. Later she was coordinator of its Russian edition. She has collaborated in Mujeres, Romances, Lunes de Revolución, Islas, Signos, La Gaceta de Cuba, and Unión. She has done translations from Portuguese and Italian.

Between 1971 and 1975 she worked on the biography-testimony of Gonzalo Roig. Her poems have appeared in countries in Europe and America, translated into English, Portuguese, and Italian.

She is part of the Advisory Board of the magazine Signos, from Santa Clara, Villa Clara. She is a collaborator of the digital newsletter Memoria, from the Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau.

Currently she has completed a new expanded version on traditional Cuban trovadorism, in the editing process, and is working on two poetry collections on Trinidad and Havana, respectively; on the biographies of two Trinidadian trovadores: Rafael Saroza and Isabel Béquer (La Profunda); also on the biography-testimony of the trumpeter, composer, conductor of bands and orchestras, the Trinidadian Julio Cueva, who came to hold the rank of captain during the Spanish Civil War, which includes the beginning and end of that war, plus the battles in which maestro Cueva and Pablo de la Torriente Brau participated, whose friendship lasted until Pablo's death in combat.

She was a founder of the Unión de Periodistas de Cuba (UPEC) and the Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC).

Awards and Distinctions:
On May 27, 2009, the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País awarded her the Samuel Feijóo Poetry Prize on the Environment, for her poetic work throughout her life dedicated to nature.

Active Bibliography:
Raíces y ternura (poetry) 1960.
Eu sou a poesia (poetry), 1961.
Cicatrices de sol (poetry), 1961.
Déjame donde estoy (poetry), 1966.
Gonzalo Roig (biography-testimony), 1978.
De mi tierra (poetry), 1979.
La creatividad en Gonzalo Roig (essay), 1990.
Julio Cueva: el rescate de su música (biography-testimony), 1991.
Ignoradas mieles antes y después (poetry), 1992.
Amoramor (poetry), 1992.
La trova tradicional cubana (essay), 1992, 1995.
Agua jubilosa (poetry), 1995.
La música sacra en Cuba (essay), 1995.
«La trova tradicional cubana», en Panorama de la música popular cubana (essay), 1996, 1999.
Gonzalo Roig: hombre y creador (essay), 1999.
San Isidro, 1910. Alberto Yarini y su época (essay-biography), 2000.

Source: CubaLiteraria