Lisandro Otero

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Novelist, diplomat, and journalist. He has published novels and essays, translated into fourteen languages.

Corresponding member of the Real Academia Española and the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española. Full member of the Academia Cubana. He was an editorialist for the Organización Editorial Mexicana, a newspaper chain to which El Sol de México belongs.

Born in La Habana in a family of teachers and journalists, he began writing his first stories when he was about 14 years old, using the old Remington typewriters in his house, as he himself confessed.

He studied philosophy at the Universidad de La Habana and graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Periodismo Manuel Márquez Sterling, of which he would later be a professor.

A film enthusiast, he published movie reviews in the Excelsior newspaper of the Cuban capital.

As a journalist he was a correspondent in Paris—where he also studied at La Sorbona—, covered the guerrilla war in Algeria, the fall of Batista in Cuba, the cultural revolution in China and many other historical events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

He was head of news at Channel 12, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Revolución and La Gaceta de Cuba, director of the magazine Cuba and Revolución y Cultura; he collaborated in the Cuban magazine Bohemia, as well as in many foreign newspapers such as the Spanish El País and ABC, the French Le Monde Diplomatique or the American The Washington Post, to name just a few.

He was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Revolución, of La Habana, editor-in-chief of La Gaceta de Cuba, director of the magazine Cuba and also director of the magazine Revolución y Cultura. He was head of news at Channel 12, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Revolución and La Gaceta de Cuba, director of the magazine Cuba and Revolución y Cultura; he collaborated in the Cuban magazine Bohemia, as well as in many foreign newspapers such as the Spanish El País and ABC, the French Le Monde Diplomatique or the American The Washington Post, to name just a few.

He received the National Prize for Journalism from the Club de Periodistas de México, of which he was part of its board of directors, and also recognition from the Club Primera Plana, of México, for his fifty years of journalistic work.

He was a member of the Sociedad General de Escritores de México, SOGEM and the Sistema Nacional de Creadores of the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes of the Mexican Republic, Conaculta.

He was editorial director of the newspaper Excelsior of México, and founder and director of the cultural weekly Arena, also of México. He collaborated in newspapers in Europe and America such as Le Monde Diplomatique, ABC of Madrid, The Washington Post and El Nacional of Caracas.

He received the "Casa de las Américas" Prize for the novel in 1963. He has also received the National Prize for Journalism, "Juan Gualberto Gómez," from the Republic of Cuba. He was awarded the Critics' Prize, of Cuba, on two occasions and was President of the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba.

He was Director of Information and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, with the rank of Ambassador. He performed diplomatic functions as Cultural Counselor in Chile, Great Britain, and Russia.

He gave lectures at numerous universities, among them La Sorbona of París, Heidelberg, San Marcos, Londres, Strasbourg, UNAM of México, and Bordeaux.

He received numerous decorations and distinctions, including the rank of Officer of the Orden Nacional del Mérito of France. He was also awarded the Medal of Underground Struggle Fighter, the medal of the XXX Anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the medal of the XX Anniversary of the Assault on Moncada, awarded by the Consejo de Estado of Cuba.

He received distinctions from the Sindicato de la Cultura, the Comités de Defensa de la Revolución, the Unión de Periodistas de Cuba and the Ministerio de Cultura.

He was a member of the board of directors of the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua, in Madrid. He received the prestigious D.A.A.D. scholarship granted by the universities of Federal Germany in 1989.

He was first finalist of the "Rómulo Gallegos" Prize of Venezuela in 1987 and finalist of the "Biblioteca Breve" Prize of the Editorial Seix Barral, of Spain, in 1964.

In 2002 he was awarded the National Prize for Literature of the Republic of Cuba.

Works
Tabaco para un Jueves Santo, 1955, short story
Cuba: Z.D.A., 1960, reportage
Hemingway, 1963, essay
La situación, 1963, novel (1st book of his trilogy about Cuba)
Pasión de Urbino, 1966, novel
En ciudad semejante, 1970, novel (2nd book of his trilogy about Cuba)
En busca de Vietnam, 1970, essay
Política cultural de Cuba, 1971, essay
Trazado, 1976, essay
Razón y fuerza de Chile, 1980, essay
General a caballo, 1980, novel
Temporada de ángeles, 1983, novel
Bolero, 1984, novel
Disidencias y coincidencias en Cuba, 1984, essay
Clave para Matta, 1984, essay
Árbol de la vida, 1990, novel (3rd book of his trilogy about Cuba)
La utopía cubana desde adentro, 1993, essay
La travesía, 1995, novel
Llover sobre mojado. Memorias de un intelectual cubano. 1957-1997, 1999
De Gutenberg a Bill Gates, 2002, essay
Charada, novel, 2004