Julio Jacinto Le Riverend Brusone

Distinguished Cuban historian, educator, and economist, he was born in La Coruña, Spain, on December 22, 1912, while his father served as Cuba's consul in that city.

He completed his secondary education at the Instituto de La Habana. Starting in 1928, he visited the Biblioteca Nacional where María Villar Buceta guided him toward the communist revolutionary movement and culture. In 1932, he presides over Unión de Avance, is a member of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Ala Izquierda Estudiantil. He confronts the Machado tyranny. He is arrested by police and participates in a hunger strike.

He goes into exile in France between 1932 and 1933 where he joins the Unión Latinoamericana de Estudiantes (UCLAE), of which he eventually becomes Secretary General. He is a member of the Communist Party of France.

Upon his return, he earned doctorates in Civil Law and in Political, Social and Economic Sciences from the University of La Habana (1941).

His work Expulsion of Cuban Deputies to the Spanish Cortes earned him first place in a competition called by Dr. Elías Entralgo Vallina. In 1940, he begins his contributions to the Habano magazine where his articles on tobacco history and economics appear. He also receives the Special José Martí Prize, established by Dr. Raúl Roa in his chair of History of Social Doctrines, for his essay Thomas More's Utopia in America, published in the Universidad de La Habana magazine. He is a founding member and first secretary of the Sociedad Cubana de Estudios Históricos e Internacionales founded by Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring. He receives the Ricardo Dolz Prize for academic merit, awarded by the School of Law of the University of La Habana.

He serves as a court-appointed attorney at the Audiencia de Santiago de Cuba, a city where he remains until 1943. In 1942, he participates in the I National Congress of History with works on Aerate's social ideas and on the Cuban economy in the years 1790-1808. Starting in 1943, he settles in Mexico.

He studies at the Colegio de México where he obtains the title of Master of History from the Instituto de Antropología e Historia of that institution. He presents a paper at the II National Congress of History on Cuban documents and those related to Cuba from the General Archive of Mexico. He is appointed Consultant to the International Institute of Afro-American Studies and begins his contributions to the Revista de Historia de América. He ends his collaboration with the same when Cuba is expelled from the OAS.

In 1944, he presents work on free trade in Cuba (1790-1820) at the III National Congress of History. In the years 1947-1948, he settles in the United States as a fellow of the John S. Guggenheim Foundation, researching the sugar industry in Cuba. In 1948, he attends the XXII Annual Conference of the Association of Sugar Technicians of Cuba (ATAC) where he presents his Historical Panorama of the Sugar Industry in Our Country. He wins by competition-examination the chair of Economic Geography and History of Commerce at the Escuela Profesional de Comercio de La Habana.

In the years 1950-1952, he serves as a technical official of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Minister of State and is a member of the Cuban delegation to the V United Nations Conference in New York. Starting in 1952, he obtains by examination the position of Director of National Heritage of the Court of Appeals, and until 1959, he presides over the sections of Social Studies and Economic Studies of the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, and is assistant director of the Revista Cubana Bimestre published by the Society itself.

Following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, he is professor of Economics at the School of Commercial Sciences of the Central University of Las Villas, professor at the Instituto de Economía of the University of La Habana, Director of the National Archive (1962-1969), director of the Instituto de Historia of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba (1962-1972), Vice President of the ACC (1965-1970), vice minister of General and Special Education (1972-1973), permanent representative of Cuba to UNESCO (1974-1977), and Director of the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí (1977-1987).

During his tenure, the Biblioteca Nacional adopts a new structure to guarantee its integral development (1978-1979). This allowed for notable progress in the general and specific work of the country's premier library institution. He immediately applies the structure left by Dr. Ariosa. A restructuring of the Departments that the Biblioteca Nacional had until that time. Three departments emerged, among others: Library Science and Methodological Research, Bibliographic Research and Historical-Cultural Research; the Department of Information for Culture and Art.

The first provided methodological guidance to the System of Public Libraries; the second centered the institution's bibliographic work up to that time in the Departments of Cuban Collections, Periodicals Library and Humanities Information and in Science and Technology, and managed to publish important bibliographies of major figures in Cuban culture; and the third, with categorized researchers, would undertake projects of historical and cultural interest. Information for Culture and Art responded to agreements of this nature with the USSR and the socialist bloc in general.

It was also during this tenure that the Cuban Standard of Bibliographic Description and the classification system of the BBK of the Lenin Library were applied to our national bibliography.

Cultural promotion activities continued to rise. The Enrique José Varona Tribune and the María Villar Buceta Chair are created.

In 1973, he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Instituto de América Latina of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Member of the Communist Party of Cuba and permanent ambassador of Cuba to UNESCO.

In 1981, the 80th anniversary of the institution is celebrated and the Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional dedicated a memorable issue. Dr. Le Riverend was during his tenure the director of the Magazine that propelled publication toward historiography, without losing sight of its encyclopedic profile. Moreover, the Biblioteca Nacional continued as a training center not only for technicians, but for students of the UH, many of them mentored at the end of their studies by specialists.

He, also Doctor Honoris Causa in Historical Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, left Cuba a substantial historical work. His Economic History of Cuba has been translated into English, French, and Russian. His immense work required a bibliographic repertoire for that purpose, compiled by Israel Echevarría, who describes and analyzes several hundred titles, an imperishable mark of his passage through life.

Historian Mildred de la Torre, in evaluating Le Riverend's legacy, expressed: "His extraordinary work, not only prolific, but also revelatory of processes and events, positions him as a builder and not a systematizer of knowledge. This is evident in his studies on agrarian property, commercial relations, the progressive development of classes and social sectors, ideological movements, the development of political behavior, the history of ideas, and the leading role of the popular masses in historical processes."

He dies in La Habana on May 12, 1998.