Julio Villoldo Bertrán

Cuban writer, librarian, and lawyer who lived between 1881 and 1953. He directed and collaborated in important editions of the period.

He completed his primary education in Havana, Cuba. In 1891 he moved to Barcelona, where he studied three years of secondary education. In New York he completed two years at the Irving Institute.

Upon returning to Cuba, he graduated with his secondary degree and, in 1907, with a Doctorate in Civil Law and Notary Public from the University of Havana.

He was librarian of the Ministry of Finance. He was a founding member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and president of the Cuban Bibliographic Cultural Association and of the institution Friends of the National Library.

During his final years he opened a public reading room in his private home under the name "Carlos de Velasco".

He died in Havana on November 15, 1953.

Literary Career

He collaborated in Azul y Rojo, La Prensa, La Discusión, Revista Bimestre Cubana, El Fígaro, and Cuba Contemporánea, of which he was co-founder, chief editor, administrator, and interim director. He also directed the weekly publication "Patria Nueva".

He published, in collaboration with Federico Córdova, "Necessity of Cuban Schools", "The Genius of Peoples", "The Secular School" (Havana, Imp. El Siglo XX, 1914).

He translated from English "Cuba Fourteen Years Later" by Stephen Bonsal, and "The Omnipotence of Legislative Power" by Henry Leyret.

Active Bibliography
Parliamentary Inviolability and Immunity Through Spanish Constitutions. Havana, Imp. El Siglo XX, 1913.
"The Decline of a Great Character: Roosevelt". Havana, Imp. El Siglo XX, 1919.
"Maritime Policy: Cuba and the Sea" [Havana, 1923].
"Statues and Monuments in Parks". Lecture broadcast by radio from the La Voz del Aire Radio Station on November 3, 1935. Havana, Molina, 1938.
Words Read in the Morning of October 16, 1942 on the Occasion of the Inauguration of the Bust of Enrique José Varona. Havana [s.i.], 1943.