Fernando Ramón Martínez Heredia

Historian, lawyer, essayist and philosopher. Director and senior researcher of the Juan Marinello Center for Development and Research of Cuban Culture, and Professor at the University of Havana. Doctor of Law. He was director of the Philosophy Department of the University of Havana and of the journal Pensamiento Crítico. Member of the Editorial Board of the journal América Libre.

Born in Yaguajay, former province of Las Villas, now Sancti Spíritus, on January 21, 1939.

He completed primary education at Public School No. 2 and secondary education at EPS Alicia Hernández de la Barca, both in Yaguajay. At both levels he was taught to sing in a choir, recite at patriotic events and all the mambisa tradition they could impart. He completed his high school diploma at the Institute of Secondary Education of Santa Clara, from 1951 to 1956.

He studied at the University of Havana starting in 1959. He graduated as a Doctor of Law in 1963. He took numerous courses for the Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences and Public Law and several for the Bachelor's degree in History.

In 1961 he joined the ranks of Plan Fidel to train Secondary Basic Teachers and was a Social Studies teacher in the nascent Scholarship Plan, in the 1962 Course. In September of that year he was sent to an intensive course to train Philosophy instructors at the "Raúl Cepero Bonilla" School. Upon completion he was selected as an instructor and soon became a professor in the Philosophy Department of the University of Havana, where he worked from February 1, 1963 until early November 1971.

From 1966 to 1969 he was director of the Philosophy Department of the University of Havana and a member of the University Council. He conducted postgraduate studies in philosophy for nine years, and in a large number of subjects, according to the Improvement Plan of the said Department.

He carried out numerous tasks of analysis or social research on Cuban and Latin American topics for institutions of the Revolution during that period. He was the second-in-command at Revolutionary Publishing, which was born in the Department in December 1965 and operated there until it became the Cuban Institute of the Book in September 1966.

The Philosophy Department carried out or participated in a very large and diverse number of tasks during its nine years of existence. Fernando participated intensely in most of them. Two examples: in the analysis team for the implementation of a new national economic system, in 1966-1967; in the entire process of universalization of university education and access of workers to the University promoted by Rector José M. Miyar, starting in 1969.

He was one of the founders of "El Caimán Barbudo", at the beginning of 1966. At the end of that year he was in the group that created the monthly magazine "Pensamiento Crítico", and he was its director throughout its publication, from February 1967 to August 1971.

Upon the closure of the magazine in August, and the dissolution of the Department in November, he was assigned to higher research tasks at the Rectory of the University of Havana.

He received the Distinction 10 Years in Education, from the National Union, in 1973; but in May of that year he began working as a technician in the Citrus and Fruit Production Department of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform. That work ended in 1974 and in June he began working at the Ministry of Sugar, until December 1976. In addition to his duties, there he created and directed the bulletin Azúcar, and presided over the History Commission. He was the Best Basic Worker 1975 of the Technical Development Division of MINAZ.

On December 1, 1976 he moved to the Center for Studies on Western Europe, attached to the Central Committee of the PCC, where he was a researcher and head of two sections. With the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution he went on a mission to Nicaragua, as a member of the Cuban diplomatic mission. There he carried out numerous tasks until 1984, when he returned to Cuba.

The America Department assigned him to the Center for Studies on America, attached to the CC of the PCC, at the end of 1984. There he was Senior Researcher, Department Head and member of the Scientific Council, until he moved, in October 1994, to the "Juan Marinello" cultural research center, of the Ministry of Culture. At this center he worked as a researcher until his death; he was the president of the Antonio Gramsci Chair of Studies from its creation in February 1997, and a member of the Scientific Council.

Fernando carried out and participated in a large number of social research projects since 1964, most of them on contemporary realities, the history of Cuba and numerous topics on Latin America.

Separated from public intellectual activities at the beginning of the seventies, he returned to them in the second half of the eighties, and immediately participated actively as an intellectual in the process of Rectification of Errors and Negative Tendencies and in the recovery of the thought of Ernesto Che Guevara.

In the last twenty years of his life he continued his research and reflections on Cuban realities, expanded and systematized his dedication to the history of Cuba, and remained active in social and political issues of Latin America. He shared these works with tireless intellectual labor, presenting his ideas and others that he considered necessary; promoting debate and dissemination, to contribute to the formation of young people, in public spaces and with study groups. Most of these tasks he carried out in Cuba, but also in some countries of Latin America.

Author of essential books on the Cuban socialist experience and Latin American reality, including: - Challenges of Cuban Socialism;
- The Che, Socialism and Communism;
- In the Furnace of the Nineties, The Shift to the Red.
- Co-author of Che Guevara for Today; Spaces, Silences and the Senses of Freedom, among other books.

Awards and Honors

- Medal of Founder of the MNR.
- Diplomas as Founder of the "José A. Echevarría" University Brigade and of the 154th Battalion of the MNR.
- Distinction 10 Years in Education, from SNTEC (1973).
- Diploma of 15 Years as a Worker of the CC of the PCC (1991).
- He was the Best Basic Worker of the Information and Technical Development Division of MINAZ (1975).
- Medal for Combat in the Clandestine Struggle, awarded by the Council of State.
- Medals for the 30th, 40th and 50th Anniversary of the Granma Landing, awarded by the Council of State.
- Essay Prize from Casa de las Américas (1989).
- Order "For National Culture" (1996).
- National Prize for Social Sciences (2006)