José Ramón De Lázaro Bencomo

Cuban plastic artist. Author of large monumental complexes in Cuba and other countries, and of more than two thousand works of sculpture, painting, drawing, and engraving. He also cultivated decoration, graphic design and illustration, ceramics, industrial design, and sculptural caricature.

A native of San Antonio de los Baños. After more than three years at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, and out of the need to come into direct contact with the work of the great masters of the plastic arts, José Delarra departed for Europe in 1958, aboard the ship Satústregui of the Spanish Trasatlántica.

He was a copyist at the Prado Museum in Madrid, and worked in the studios of sculptors José Clará (Catalan, student of Rodin), Juan Avalos, and Victorio Macho. And in Italy with Marino Marini (Venice) and Antonio Bertti (Florence), from whom he learned the art of medal-making. Germany and Austria did not escape his search at the heights of continental art.

Following the triumph of January 1959, he returned to Cuba and completed his degree thesis at the San Alejandro Academy, where shortly after he became a professor and director. Very soon he integrated himself into the cultural movement developing on the Island to bring art to the people.

Delarra is the author of large monumental complexes in Cuba and other countries, and of more than two thousand works of sculpture, painting, drawing, and engraving. He also cultivated decoration, graphic design and illustration, ceramics, industrial design, and sculptural caricature. Pictorial pieces of his authorship form part of private collections in around 30 countries. He completed approximately 300 exhibitions, both group and solo.

As a sculptor, he left 130 monumental and medium-format works in Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Angola, Uruguay, and the Dominican Republic. He was a founder of UNEAC, a member of the International Association of Plastic Artists, and of UNESCO (and president of the Cuban Committee of this organization between 1980 and 1987), President of the Sculpture subsection of UNEAC between 1982 and 1987, president of the National Commission of the International Association of Plastic Artists (AIAP) between 1982 and 1985.

Son of José Ramón, a shoemaker, bookbinder, blacksmith, and master craftsman; his mother, Lorenza, was a homemaker with a calling to be a teacher. From childhood he was drawn to the path of the plastic arts, in large measure determined by the manual and creative abilities inherited from his father. In 1949, at age 11, he made his first sculpture in the yard of his house in the Cerro neighborhood. There he sculpted a bust of Martí.

After his long journey through Europe and upon his return to Cuba in July 1959, he completed his studies at San Alejandro between 1960 and 1961, traveling from plaza to plaza in what he called the Mobile Exhibition of revolutionary sculpture, sculpting more than sixty heads or sculptural photographs of the faces of residents from the neighborhoods the artist visited: the blind man, the violinist, the man who sat on the street corner. He did it in less than an hour, in the street and at work centers, as part of the literacy campaign.

Guillermo Cabrera Álvarez, the journalist, was the live narrator of the creative act. And so many people surrounded Delarra when he worked in the streets that his presence once caused traffic to stop and he had to ask the artist for help to disperse the crowd.

In 1961 he was a teacher of sculpture interest circles for children in Marianao and La Habana libraries; from 1962 (and for six years), teacher of sculpture and engraving (third and fourth year) at the San Alejandro Academy of Plastic Arts; from 1963 until 1965, founding teacher of the vocational workshops of Plastic Arts in San Antonio de los Baños, Bejucal, Managua, and San José de las Lajas. From 1967 to 1968 he was director of the San Alejandro Academy of Plastic Arts. In this same period, he was a guide teacher of Plastic Arts at the Institute of Educational Improvement (ISE-MINED) in Vedado, whose faculty was directed by Rafaela Chacón Nardi, and was a teacher at the National School of Decoration, of Interior Commerce, Cubanacán. In 1991 he gave a cycle of painting classes for three months at the Educational Center Itzamná, Cancún, Mexico.

Between 1950 and 2001, Delarra modeled around 50 portrait heads; among them: of his parents and brother (1950 and 1959); of French singer Danielle Dupré (1956); of Cuban painter Rosendo Gutiérrez (1957); of poet Manuel Navarro Luna (1964); of intellectual Juan Marinello Vidaurreta (1963); of boxer Teófilo Stevenson (1983); of Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín (1996); of poet Jesús Orta Ruiz, Indio Naborí (1996); of Zaida del Río (2001).

In the period between 1950 and 2003, he placed an estimated 150 sculptural works in public places: a low-relief mural (concrete, 15 square meters), at the former Necropolis of Havana (1957) and Doctors Martyrs of the Revolution (bronze, 1961) in the same place; various busts of Martí in provinces and Havana; Camilo Cienfuegos (concrete bust, 1963), in the park of the same name in East Havana; Rubén Martínez Villena (1962, bronze bust) in the Library of the University of Havana, Cadenas Plaza, as a result of winning first prize in the National Contest University of Havana 1962 (it was inaugurated by Juan Marinello and Dr. Gustavo Aldereguía); Motherhood sculpture, Ramón González Coro hospital (1972, concrete); relief of Che (1976, ceramic) at the Ceiba 1 pre-university, among many others.

Main Monuments

Loma del Capiro sculptural complex in Santa Clara (1988).

Monument to the derailment of the armored train, Santa Clara (1986)

Ernesto Che Guevara Sculptural Complex.

Oil on canvas (2001) by José Delarra.

Sculpting large figures was one of José Delarra's dreams from the time he was twenty years old and had the opportunity to contemplate European Renaissance and modern monuments. His hitchhiking tour through the main cities of that continent left lasting traces on his creative talent. But it was almost two decades later, in 1976, when he first had the opportunity to pursue that desire. With a sculpture of Máximo Gómez, four meters high by three wide, he inaugurated one of the most prominent stages of his artistic life.

This work was followed in 1977 by the monument to Friedrich Engels, at the Vocational School in Pinar del Río (artificial stone, mortar, 3.30 meters high by 3.60 deep and 2.25 wide).

The following year he erected the monument to José Martí in Cancún, Mexico (concrete, 13 meters high, 8 in diameter, four pieces). Also in 1978 he made the monument to the heroes who fell in the taking of Sagua de Tánamo, Holguín (concrete, 10 meters high, three pieces).

In 1979 he works on and completes the monumental complex on the history of Cuba, from the arrival of the Spanish to the Assault on the Moncada Barracks: the Plaza de la Revolución in Holguín (concrete, 61 meters long by 11 meters high, 274 square meters of sculpted surface). During this last stage he also creates the relief of José Martí (bronze, 1.10 meters by 0.40) which is found at the entrance to the main hall of the Palace of Conventions, and the frieze, on the theme of the volante and the calesero, placed on the exterior of the La Cecilia restaurant, at Fifth Avenue and 112, Havana (concrete, 5 by 2 meters), among other works.

Between 1980 and 1981, he erects the Monument to the history of Mexico, Cancún (concrete, 19 meters high by 40 wide, nine pieces).

1982, Monumental Complex Plaza de la Patria, Bayamo (25 by 17 by 5 meters);
1983, Monument to the spouses Rosenberg, Paseo and Zapata, Havana (concrete and ceramic, five by 2.80 meters);
1983, Relief of José Martí, mounted on a green marble wall in the former seat of the National Assembly (3 by 3 meters); 1983, Monument to El Vaquerito, Parque del Carmen, Santa Clara (concrete, 3.50 by 1.20 meters); 1984, Head of José Martí, entrance of Bohemia and Verde Olivo magazines (concrete, 0.90 meters);
1985, Monument to Ñico López, at the National School of the Party, Santa Fe, Havana (concrete, 5 meters);
1986, Monument to the Taking of the Armored Train, Sculptural Complex Villa Clara (design by the sculptor in an area of 15 square meters);
1986, Monument to General Máximo Gómez, FAR Academy, equestrian statue in bronze of 4.60 meters in height plus two of pedestal, 6.60 meters);
1986, Sculptural complex to General Antonio Maceo y Grajales at the San Pedro estate, Bauta, site of his fall in combat (concrete, composed of 15 monumental pieces in an area of five thousand square meters);
1986, statue of Ernesto Che Guevara, FAR Universal Hall (plaster, 2.25 meters in height);
1987, bronze relief of Che, School of Cadres of Basic Industry, Havana (8 meters in height);
1987, Head of Che, Electronic Components Company, Pinar del Río (concrete, 4.50 meters);
1987, Head of Che at the Manicaragua factory (bronze, head of one meter, assembly: 3.20 meters);
1987, relief on Celia Sánchez, National School of the Ñico López Party (concrete, 2.50 meters in height);
1987, Monument to Tamara Bunke Bide, at the Teacher-Training School in Pinar del Río (concrete, 2 by 1.20 meters);
1988: Bust of Augusto César Sandino in Uruguay (bronze, 0.85 meters); Mural of 18 precious woods from Cuba, Angola, Nicaragua, and the Soviet Union (40 meters long by 3.60 in height), Ministry of Industry and Mines, main figure: Che); Monument to the victims of the American atomic attack on the town of Nagasaki, Japan. Located in the Park of the victims of that city (concrete and steel, 2 by one meter); Monument to Güinia de Miranda, Villa Clara (bronze and concrete, 4 meters); 1988, Monument to the last mambi Juan Fajardo Vega, Cacahual (bronze and marble, 3.50 meters in height); Monument to Che in Minas de Matahambre, Santa Lucía, Pinar del Rio (bronze and black marble, 4 by 4 meters); Che Guevara, Aviation School of the same name, Pinar del Río (bronze and black marble, 3 meters); Camilo Cienfuegos, Camilitos School, Pinar del Río (statue of concrete and marble); Monument to the taking of the town of Báez by the 13 de Marzo Revolutionary Directorate (concrete and bronze, 5 meters); Monument to the taking of the town of Zulueta by Camilo Cienfuegos (concrete and bronze, 4 meters); Monument to the taking of Placetas (marble and bronze, 3.70 meters);
1988, Monument to the taking of Manicaragua by the 13 de Marzo Revolutionary Directorate (concrete and bronze, 2.50 meters); Monument to the taking of Remedios by Che's troops (bronze and concrete, 5 meters);
1988, Monument to the taking of Caibarién by Che (bronze and concrete, 4 meters); Monument to the taking of Santo Domingo, Villa Clara, by Víctor Bordón's troops (bronze and concrete, 4 meters); Monument to the taking of Loma de Capiro by Column No. 8, Santa Clara (stainless steel and bronze, 10 meters in height); Monument to Che's Headquarters, now Provincial Committee of Villa Clara (Bronze and concrete, 3 meters); Monument to the taking of Squadron 31 in Santa Clara by the 13 de Marzo Revolutionary Directorate (concrete and bronze, 5 meters); Monumental complex in the Plaza de la Revolución of Santa Clara, Villa Clara, dedicated to Ernesto Che Guevara. The complex measures 72 meters across the front, 28 deep, and 25 high (bronze, concrete, Jaimanitas stone, and green marble). It contains 144 square meters of reliefs and a sculpture of Che seven meters in height. It is the center of a monumental system that spans from Güinia de Miranda to Santo Domingo and integrates about 15 monuments within an area of about 100 kilometers.

In 1997, when the Memorial was added that houses the remains of Che and the 38 combatants who fell in Bolivia, Delarra created the 38 faces of the heroes that are on the covers of the niches and ossuaries where they rest.

In 1991 he completed the Monumental Complex to the Cuban internationalist combatant and to Cuban-Angolan friendship in Luanda, in a park of five thousand square meters, composed of a central element of 7 by 7 meters and other radial stone elements. Upon his return from Africa, he erected the monumental sculpture in colored steel (white, yellow, red, green, and blue), located in front of the Olympic Stadium (11 meters in height and 30 tons in weight), inaugurated during the Pan-American Games in Havana.

Between 1992 and 1995, he made medium-format monuments in Mexico; among them, the sculpture Education, at the Educational Center Itzamná, Cancún, Quintana Roo (2.50 meters), and the Mural Painting for the Fifth Centennial of the Discovery of America titled Child of the New World, in the same place (1.80 x 2.50 meters). In Spain, he sculpts and places monuments to Martí in Gijón, Asturias (granite and concrete, 2 by 2 meters); Láncara, Galicia (concrete and stone, 2.50 meters), and in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia (granite and bronze, 4.50 meters). Likewise, a bust of Martí by him was placed in Iasi, Romania (concrete). Among other works made by Delarra at the end of the twentieth century is the Monument to Rubén Martínez Villena for the 100th anniversary of his birth, in Alquízar, the birthplace of the hero (1999, bronze, 2 meters in height).

The sculptor survived the start of the new millennium by barely three years. In that period he continued with his sculptural creations, while dedicating much time to painting. He created 14 sculptures in those years, two of them inaugurated months after his death: the Monument to Camilo Cienfuegos in the hills of Jobo Rosado (1.72 meters in height, concrete), and the Monument to Che in Gavilanes, Escambray, the place where the march of Column 8 Ciro Redondo concluded (4.40 by 2.90 meters, concrete).

In monumental sculpture, beyond his works, Delarra made technical contributions related to the process of taking the figure from the maquette to its final size. The sculptor adapted the point system used by stonecutters to carve marble, learned in Europe, to his own conditions and visions. He would place structures with 3D measurements around the maquette and in the space where the full-size sculpture would be erected (rectangular metal frameworks, scaled). Thus he reproduced the proportions of the small figure in the large one.

The Che of Santa Clara

Delarra had already modeled the image of the Guerrilla Fighter several times when, in mid-1982, while putting the finishing touches on the Plaza de la Patria in Bayamo, Víctor Bordón (a companion of Che) sent him the commission to make a monument to the hero in the City of Santa Clara.

The sculpture of Che in full-length form took shape a few months later, in plasticine, in the artist's studio in Old Havana; a medium-format sketch 2.25 meters in height, later cast in plaster.

A new stage, that of sculpting with the same pliable material the figure of 6.80 meters that today presides over the Plaza, began on May 9, 1985, in a warehouse in the Manuelita neighborhood, on the outskirts of Santa Clara. There all the sculptural objects that today make up the Complex were executed, including the friezes. Work began on August 9, 1984, and extended for 16 long months. The project and maquette that included the sculptures in the Plaza, the roadway, museum, protocol hall, and information center, with a descriptive account of the details and symbols—the same ones that were in the monument inaugurated in 1988—had been presented by Delarra to the authorities of Villa Clara, even before the start of the modeling of the sculpture.

But on December 25, 1985 (wrote the artist in a chronology of dates and facts related to the execution of the work), all workshop work was complete and the executive project of the civil work was finished, the Che sculpture ready to be cast, and the relief pieces cast in concrete. The letters of the monument were in Placetas to be made with the same metal alloy. What remained was to begin the civil construction.

Eleven months of that same year it took to cast the Che sculpture in bronze, as well as its transport in parts to Santa Clara for assembly and welding, noted Delarra in one of his diaries. It was done at the hardware factory in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa. There, journalist Heriberto Rosabal fortuitously found the sculptor "alongside a group of other workers," published by Tribuna de La Habana on April 8, 1988.

That was the year José Delarra reached his fifth decade of life, and his vital energy drove him to constant work. It is quite likely that he did not imagine his existence would extend only three more lustres, but observing his impressive curriculum and the multiplicity of actions he was developing simultaneously, one can evoke a man of great creative force driven by an impetuous talent. Perhaps in this way can be explained how the sculptor, along with completing the civil work and assembling the pieces and texts of the monument, was able to make eleven other works (of medium format) in each of the towns liberated by Che and his companions during the Las Villas campaign, and create, in this way, a system of one hundred square kilometers of tribute.

Well-versed in the execution of large-scale monuments, José Delarra always placed great importance on the multidisciplinary team associated with these projects. And he also appreciated and recognized the work of its members.

This is confirmed by Blanca Hernández, architect, a close collaborator of the sculptor between August 1984 and December 1988, who dedicated all her knowledge and efforts to this work. She arrived after the area for placement, the construction of the Plaza, and the Avenue of the Parades had already been decided. And Delarra was already modeling the figure and murals in plasticine in the Manuelita workshop. Between them, she assures, there was always a relationship of mutual respect. As an architect, Blanca decided to accept the challenge of making buildable the project that Delarra had conceived: "he conceived the entire exterior of the monument, even the forms the base would have; not only the murals and the figure. In this case, there is advanced work by the sculptor, very rarely seen."

Blanca brought with her Abilio Martín, structural engineer, who performed all the calculations. The architect recounts that in that period she made some change proposals to Delarra, some of which he accepted and others he did not. As for the area of the Plaza, she adds, Delarra had foreseen a general dimension of that space and some characteristics, but the architectural project was designed by Jorge Cao of EMPROY 9. And the sculptor agreed with that proposal.

Six years of intense labor and tensions concluded on December 28, 1988, with the inauguration, almost 30 years ago, of what was then called the Monumental Complex, today the Ernesto Che Guevara Sculptural Complex.

Eighty years old José Delarra would be in this third decade of his greatest work: not only in dimensions but in significance. A monument that had in its origins numerous critics of professional nature, and that still suffers, with marked recurrence, from media omissions regarding its authorship, among other oversights and indifference.

The work, however, also transcends through its artistic values. As a monument to a historical figure, this sculpture of Che is daring. Its presentation is informal: it has a plastered arm and a gesture of everyday walking. It becomes mystical due to the treatment of the modeling, which displays a certain expressionist style, appreciable from various angles; and due to the soul the artist put into it. When observed from below, it seems that at the same time it levitates and connects with reality. The projection of the sculpture in space transmits a force and energy that captivates. Its workmanship is therefore not that of the cold realism of a commemorative statue, as some have wanted to stigmatize it.

The Memorial, the site where since 1997 the remains of the guerrillas have rested, took its area from that enormous protocol hall conceived in the second phase of the project presented by the sculptor.

Architects Blanca Hernández and Jorge Cao were the designers of the new use of the space; Delarra agreed with the proposal and, furthermore, modeled the 38 faces of the heroes that are in the niches, although this was not foreseen in the conception of those specialists.

Definitely, this is his most outstanding work and he will always be remembered for it. Because he is not only the author of the sculptures, but conceived the ensemble in all its scope. Furthermore, the sculpture of Che not only represents the hero of Villa Clara with his arm in a sling; it also represents the Che who was a doctor, the Che who brought emancipation through voluntary work; the one who went to the UN and who wrote the farewell letter to Fidel; it is furthermore a Che who walks, who is in motion, who turns toward South America to fulfill his destiny.

The day the bronze figure of Che was hoisted to place it on its pedestal, Delarra said: "If it falls I fall with it; we artists and ship captains live and die with our work." The monuments erected in the Revolution Plazas of the provinces of Holguín, Granma, and Villa Clara, among others, will perpetuate his work and his modesty, given that Delarra donated more than 60 thousand dollars and two million pesos to the country by renouncing payment for his works and by delivering the amount of many that were paid to him outside Cuba. Well-deserved was the title of chronicler of the Revolution and sculptor of Che, given to him by those who know his work and his human stature.