José Joaquín Lorenzo Luaces

Poet and playwright. One of the great Cuban dramatic authors of the nineteenth century. He is considered the highest comedian of the period.

Lyric poet of very diverse and contradictory judgments, he was despite his precarious health a tireless worker and promoter of letters. He figured among the cultivators of siboneyism and criolismo, because above all he became a devoted singer of the land that saw his birth. Luaces ventured into theater with pieces in which deserve to be highlighted "The Red Beggar", "Aristodemo", "The Phantom of Aravaca", "The Golden Calf" and "An Hour in the Life of a Skeleton", the only one of his theatrical works that was premiered during the author's lifetime. He made translations and collaborated in the main newspapers and magazines of the era.

Together with José Jacinto Milanés and Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Luaces comprises the triad of romantic playwrights in Cuban theatrical and literary history, although romanticism is not expressed in him in a full manner, as he belongs to the second romantic generation, that which links neoclassical poetry with the modernist poetry of Parnassian style.

He studied Latin in Puerto Príncipe, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Colegio Seminario de San Carlos in La Habana in 1844 and obtained the degree of Bachelor in Jurisprudence from the Real Universidad de La Habana in 1848. He frequented the literary and scientific gathering at the home of naturalist Don Felipe Poey Aloy, where he presented his first poetic compositions and translations from French.

From 1849 onwards, he collaborated in various literary magazines, such as Brisas de Cuba, Floresta Cubana, Revista de La Habana, among others, and in the newspapers El Regañón, Prensa de la Habana and La Aurora.

The first poem that drew attention to Luaces, "The Artisan's Daughter" (written in July of 1849), was affectionately taken from him by a friend and appeared in El Artista (La Habana, 1849). Together with José Fornaris, his cherished friend, he published in 1856 La Piragua, a newspaper that aspired to be an organ of siboneyism, in which he made known, among other poems, stories of siboney theme and prose works, some of his "Cuban Romances". He also collaborated in the magazines Brisas de Cuba (1855-1856), El Cesto de Flores (1856), Floresta Cubana (1856), Revista de La Habana (1857), El Kaleidoscopio (1859), Revista Habanera (1861), Cuba Literaria (1861-1862); in the newspapers El Regañón, Prensa de La Habana, La Aurora, and in the compilations Aguinaldo habanero (1865) and Noches literarias en casa de Nicolás Azcárate (1866).

In 1856, he edited the literary newspaper La Piragua together with his friend José Fornaris, an outstanding figure in siboneyist poetry, which Luaces also cultivated. In 1857, he presented a volume with his poems and, in 1859, organized and published, together with Fornaris, the anthology Cuba poética, a selection of works by Cuban poets from Manuel de Zequeira to the present date.

Together with Fornaris, he also directed the anthology Cuba poética. Colección escogida de las composiciones en verso de los poetas cubanos desde Zequeira hasta nuestros días (La Habana, 1858; 2nd ed., Id., 1861). In 1859 he received the prize from the Liceo de La Habana for his ode A Ciro Field, for the immersion of the submarine cable. Between 1866 and 1867 he maintained with Fornaris an intimate Academy, which was attended by Antonio Zambrana, Manuel Costales, Andrés Díaz, Govantes and others. Three days after his death, the jury of the Juegos Florales of the Liceo de La Habana, composed of Mendive, Piñeyro and Mestre, awarded the first prize to his ode "El trabajo", which was published in 1868. In the magazine Islas of the Universidad Central de Las Villas, his theatrical works El fantasmón de Aravaca and Una hora en la vida de una calavera have recently been made known; the latter was the only one of his theatrical works that was premiered during the author's lifetime. "The Golden Calf" remained unpublished until the edition of his Teatro in 1964 and was premiered by the Grupo Estudio in December of 1967, in La Habana. El fantasmón de Aravaca was premiered by the Centro Dramático de Las Villas in September of 1970, in Cienfuegos. He used the pseudonym of Br. Taravillas.

In this stage, his dramatic production began. He wrote El mendigo rojo (1859), although it was published in 1866; Aristodemo, published in 1867; Arturo de Osberg, El fantasmón de Aravaca, El becerro de oro, A tigre, zorra y bulldog, La escuela de los parientes, El conde y el capitán, Una hora en la vida de un calavera. His known theatrical work consists of five comedies, three dramas, one tragedy and one sainete. During the author's lifetime only this last one (Una hora en la vida de un calavera) managed to reach the stage (Teatro Tacón, 1865). In 1872, the dramatic company of Baltasar Torrecillas will premiere at the same place the comedy El becerro de oro.

Although, like some of his contemporaries, he made use of parable, employing themes and characters from other eras and cultures, to develop his critical thought about Cuban society and, in particular, about colonial politics, the frequent presence in his work of the theme of freedom, peasant traditions, creole motifs and the connection with the siboneyist movement attracted the attention of colonial power and censorship was particularly alert with respect to his work.

On the other hand, the critics, who held him in high esteem as a poet, only valued the serious aspect in his theater, while disparaging his comedies which, today, however, are appreciated as the most interesting area of his dramaturgy.

They deal with domestic and local life from a amusing and sharp critical perspective. Luaces reflects on the construction of identities, the processes that erode national being when he mocks the desire for imitation of foreign patterns by his contemporaries, their yearnings for noble titles and their ramblings with Italian opera.
With his examination of false values and his white professorial tone, he becomes a precursor of the parodic world that Cuban buffos would later develop.

Scholars of his theater agree in highlighting in this part of his production his careful verse, the grace of his dialogues, the creation of characters and atmospheres with a marked national color.

Curiously, during the second half of the twentieth century, he was the most performed playwright in the country among all national authors from the nineteenth century. A good part of his theater reached the stage. This is the case of El becerro de oro (Teatro Estudio, 1967), El fantasmón de Aravaca (Centro Dramático de Cienfuegos, 1970), A tigre, zorra y bulldog (Teatro Rita Montaner, 1984), La escuela de los parientes (Teatro Estudio, 1985) and Aristodemo (Teatro Estudio, 1990).

Works:
• The Last Love
• The Last Day of Babylon
• Fall of Missolonghi
• The Light
• Nature
• The Death of the Maenad
• Your Fault
• Childhood Memories
• Fishing
• The Forbidden Fruit

His best-known theatrical works are: El becerro de oro, El fantasmón de Aravaca and Una hora en la vida de una calavera, the latter being the only one he was able to premiere in his lifetime.