José Manuel Pérez Cabrera

Historian, lawyer, and educator. Along with Ramiro Guerra y Sánchez, Juan J. Remos, and Emeterio Santovenia, he was one of the directors of Historia de la Nación Cubana.

He was born in La Habana in the same year as the founding of the republic. In 1922 he graduated as a doctor in Civil Law, and in 1924, in Philosophy and Letters from the Universidad de La Habana.

He held the position of minister of Public Instruction during the years of the 1930s, when he occupied the Direction of Education of the Secretary of Education. There he founded and directed its official organ, the Revista de Educación.

In 1935 he held the position of full professor of Universal Geography and History in the secondary schools of La Habana and El Vedado, a position he maintained until 1959. In 1945 he was among the founders of the Universidad Santo Tomás de Villanueva, located about ten kilometers from the center of La Habana, in the Biltmore district (today, Siboney). At this university, a center for private higher education, he was dean and taught in various departments.

Among the examples of his extensive and varied authorial work are: Los orígenes del Teatro inglés (1923), Lecciones de geografía de Cuba (1930), En torno al bojeo de Cuba (1941), and his Historiografía de Cuba (1962).

He was a member of the Academia de la Historia de Cuba, director of its publications, secretary and librarian of said institution. Various works by him appeared through the Academy.

He was among the authors who promoted the publication of Historia de la Nación Cubana, in 10 volumes, the first synthesis of national history written by Cubans, and one of the events related to commemorative activities in 1953 for the centennial of the birth of our national hero, José Martí.

He was president of the Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística; also of the Instituto Cubano-Costarricense. He contributed to the Revista de la Facultad de Letras y Ciencias of the Universidad de La Habana, in the columns of Diario de la Marina, La Lucha, América, Revista de Historia de América (México), Misoliana Hispánica (Madrid), and the Hispanic American Review (USA).

Source: EnCaribe.org