Enrique Loynaz Muñoz

Belonging to the Loynaz family, being the brother of Dulce María and son of brigadier of the Liberating Army Enrique Loynaz del Castillo can mean a heavy burden of responsibility for those who walk the path of letters. Perhaps it was so for Enrique Loynaz Muñoz, but in a curious sense: it made him an incessant seeker of his own voice. And he found it. Much has been written about this family. About Enrique as well; in particular about his personality, about the concentration of his gaze, about the enormous talent of his faculties, about his disdain for publishing his verses. It is affirmed that he never stopped writing and that his temperamental character made him greatly demanding of himself.

He completed his primary and secondary studies, like the rest of his siblings, Dulce, Carlos Manuel and Flor, in the home itself, with private tutors who in the case of the Loynaz was a space characterized by a peculiar atmosphere, deeply interested in the arts.

Between 1920 and 1921 he traveled through several countries of Western Europe and part of the United States.

Presented by Chacón y Calvo, El Fígaro published some of his poems in 1923. The essayist who presented him in the aforementioned publication wrote of his verses: "Words become increasingly more interior, words increasingly have the value of symbols." Scholars affirm that in Enrique one perceives the influences of Juan Ramón Jiménez and Edgar Allan Poe. But above all his own accent flows. His work reveals the mystery of a character in whom shadows and the matter of death are present: The star is seen in the distance and I still keep smiling… The star is already very close and my face is still serene… The star has stopped at my back and I am feeling very cold. The star touches me and I tremble… The star embraces me and I die… ("La estrella")

At the University of Havana (1928) he graduated with a degree in law, a profession he practiced occasionally.

His poetic work, which he never made known regularly through periodical publications, remains unpublished in its volumes Un libro místico, La canción de la sombra, Faros lejanos, Canciones virginales, Poemas del amor y del vino, Miscelánea (Versos de narración y entretenimiento) and Después de la vida.

During his lifetime he did not publish a book and an important part of his work remains unpublished, from which some essays stand out.

Active Bibliography:
Poesía completa, Editorial Letras Cubanas, 2007.