Graziella Pogolotti Jacobson

Art critic, prestigious essayist and outstanding Cuban intellectual, promoter of Cuban Plastic Arts. President of the Advisory Council of the Minister of Culture, Vice President of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. Member of the Cuban Academy of Language.

Daughter of one of the icons of the artistic avant-garde of the first half of the twentieth century, Marcelo Pogolotti, and of a Russian mother. She was born in Paris in 1931 but lived in Cuba from childhood. Being Cuban, for her, is a mission and a state of grace. She is one of the most willing and necessary advisors and consultants for any useful project that may benefit the cultural fabric of the nation.

This participatory vocation is also expressed in the small things of life. She enjoys pleasant conversation, popular music, and doesn't like to lose track of a soap opera; she never closes her doors to those who seek her out.

At seven years old she was already in the Cuban capital, where she studied until graduating as a Doctor of Philosophy and Letters from the University of Havana. She pursued postgraduate studies at the Sorbonne for a year, studying Contemporary French Literature. Upon returning to Cuba, she enrolled in the Professional School of Journalism "Manuel Márquez Sterling," where she obtained another degree.

She has written numerous essays, but as fundamental as her written work has been her enormous work in teaching and promoting culture. From the chair at the University of Havana, to sociocultural research linked to the first steps of the Grupo Teatro Escambray, from the training of theater artists at the Higher Institute of Art, to the vice presidency of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, from the National Library to the presidency of the Alejo Carpentier Foundation.

At the Triumph of the revolution she was in Italy since late 1958, she was on a scholarship, residing in Rome, so she also took the opportunity to attend to her health. Upon learning the news of the overthrow of the dictatorship, she presented herself along with other people living in Rome at the Embassy headquarters to occupy it. Upon returning to the island she passed through Paris until she finally arrived in Madrid, where the Revolutionary Government stationed planes to facilitate the return of Cubans in Europe. During the flight she met Fayad Jamis, who was already a distinguished poet and painter despite his youth.

Upon arriving in Havana she observed widespread euphoria; the rebels were at the air terminal. She took on her first job by chance when María Teresa Freyre de Andrade, whom she already knew, proposed that she take charge of the department of selection and acquisition of the National Library, where she remained for 10 years alternating it with other functions.

She participated in the Congress that founded UNEAC. At the National Library, in her role as Advisor, she promoted programs to stimulate reading among the people.

At the University of Havana she stands out as an undergraduate and postgraduate professor, teaching courses on French literature and Cuban theater. She holds several management responsibilities including the department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Havana, and also the subdirection of research of the School of Letters. She chairs the doctorate in Philology at the University of Havana.

At the Higher Institute of Art, she directs the Faculty of Performing Arts. She has been a member of the editorial board of various cultural magazines and of the most important newspapers in the country. She has traveled through Mexico, Italy and socialist countries and participated in important national events where transcendental cultural problems have been analyzed and where her ideas have provided guidelines to follow. She is currently president of the Alejo Carpentier Foundation.

Publications

Examen de conciencia (1965).
El camino de los maestros (1976).
El oficio de leer (1989).
Teatro y Revolución, anthology and prologue
Experiencia de la crítica (2003).
Alejo, el ojo crítico (2007).
Dinosauria soy (2012).
En busca del unicornio. Ediciones Unión, 2016. 

Awards and Recognition
 Among the many recognitions received for her outstanding work, she holds: Order "Frank País". Order "Carlos J. Finlay". Order "Félix Varela". Order "Ana Betancourt". Order "Mariana Grajales". Honorary Member of the APC. National Prize for Art Criticism. Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba. National Prize for Artistic Teaching, (2005). National Prize for Literature, (2005). Annual Prize for Literary Criticism (2011), for the book Dinosauria soy.