Manuel Marques Sterling Domínguez

Historian and intellectual Manuel Márquez-Sterling was the son of Carlos Márquez-Sterling and Sylvia Domínguez; stepson of Uva Hernández Cata; brother of Carlos Márquez-Sterling; half-brother of Lucía Pérez, Uva Aragón, and Gloria Baker.

Born in Havana in the heart of a distinguished Cuban family, he followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather in the study of law. He received his law degree from the University of Havana in 1955.

Manuel obtained a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Havana in 1958. He received the National Prize for Law, the highest student award from the University of Havana. His legal practice in Cuba included serving as a public defender and arguing constitutional law cases before the Cuban Supreme Court.

After the triumph of the 1959 revolution, Manuel and his family went into exile in 1960, arriving in the United States. Manuel and his family first settled in Washington DC, where he became a U.S. citizen and worked as a shoe salesman and taught at a preparatory school.

After attending a collage fair, he obtained a position as a professor of Latin and economics at Ricker College in Houlton, ME. In 1965, he moved with his family to the White Mountains of Plymouth. He taught as professor emeritus of medieval, ancient, and Roman history for 45 years at Plymouth University.

Sympathetic and charming, Manuel had an illustrious career as an educator. In 1991 he received the Distinguished Professor award from Plymouth University. He was a winner of the National "Rosa Blanca" Prize, patronage José Marti Los Angeles, CA. Manuel founded the medieval forum with Herb Otto, Richard Chisholm, and Mary Taylor and served as director between 1980 and 1998.

This annual event attracted medieval scholars from across the country and the world. He was chair of the Department of Social Sciences from 1980 to 1986. Additionally, he had a weekly radio program called History in the Music of Famous and Not-So-Famous Composers on WPCR 91.7 Plymouth University Plymouth.

His literary career was marked by the publication of several novels, well-received plays, and a long-running opinion piece for Diario de las Américas. Among his publications are Historia de la Isla de Cuba, and A La Ingerencia Extraña, La Virtud Doméstica (co-authored with his father, Carlos Márquez-Sterling), Fernán González, Primer Conde de Castilla: El Hombre y la Leyenda, and Carlos Márquez-Sterling: Memorias de un Estadista.

In 2009 he wrote Cuba 1952-1959, La verdadera historia del ascenso al poder de Castro. The book explains how Fidel Castro came to power from the perspective of Manuel's direct personal experience.

He is also known for his acclaimed historical novels La Cúpula and Hondo Corre el Cauto. The latter topped the bestseller list of the Miami Nuevo Herald. An accomplished playwright, his works in that genre include La Salsa del Diablo, which won the Madrid-Miami Letras de Oro Prize in 1993. And later, in 1996, Corneille's Dream, winner of the University of Southern New Hampshire Spectrum Prize for a one-act play.

In 2013, Manuel Márquez-Sterling co-wrote with Trish Lindberg the much-beloved musical work Marking the Moment in honor of Plymouth's 250th anniversary jubilee celebration.

One could always see the performer, Manuel, wearing hats from different periods of history. He also acted in several of his works, including Nothing More Nothing Less, a Plymouth University production created in collaboration with Trish Lindberg and Dan Perkins.

An avid baseball enthusiast, he was featured and consulted on the history of baseball in Latin America in Ken Burns' 1994 documentary series on the history of the game.

Opera was a passion, and he was a loyal and committed fanatic of that art form. He was president of the Meyerbeer fan club and took pleasure in converting an unsuspecting student into a die-hard opera fanatic. For years locals could take his Are You Afraid of Opera? lecture series. Additionally, he gave lectures for the Opera League of NH. After a visit on a cruise, he realized that cruises lacked opera appreciation courses, so he designed a shorter version of his class and set sail traveling the world and sharing his love of opera.

In 2015, after suffering his first major stroke, Manuel wrote his final book, La canción de Clio; La historia como ópera, an overview of great French historical opera.

A member of the board of the Plymouth Historical Society, he wrote and directed a play about the imaginary return of Daniel Webster to Plymouth. Who in the world is Perry Mason? Created as a fundraiser for the preservation of the Daniel Webster Courthouse.

Manuel, a devoted and loving family man, was adored by his three daughters. An ingenious and imaginative father, he would make up stories on the spot to entertain the girls while their mother shopped. He taught his daughters to play baseball and created the game "flyball" for four players. He playfully and cheerfully bit the girls' wrists, leaving the imprint of an imaginary watch, using it to teach them how to tell time. An attentive father who supervised breakfast and lunch, he could magically take two pop-tarts from a package and divide them equally among three girls, avoiding the often-heard complaint, "that's not fair." He cleverly nicknamed everything that came into his life, from his friends to projects and objects in the house.

Apa, as his only grandson Nicolás called Manuel, was an extremely engaged and playful presence, a positive influence and role model for him from the start. Manuel was an excellent storyteller, and some of Nicolás's earliest memories are listening to his Apa tell him stories of ancient myths and forgotten worlds, which always filled him with a sense of wonder that he carries with him to this day.

Along with the ability to tell a story, other gifts that Manuel gave his grandson include how to get into the right kind of mischief, that the best way to listen to Tchaikovsky is at full volume in the car, and to show a bad movie no mercy no matter how much everyone begs you to give it a break. A charming rascal and naturally intelligent adventurer who loved to laugh: Apa was a one-of-a-kind grandfather.

Married for 61 years, Manuel and Gloria never separated. They shared a strong love and bond, and in exile they were able to create a life full of love, family, and friends that could be admired and emulated not only by refugees but also by Americans. Shortly after arriving in the United States, it became inevitable that Gloria also had to join the workforce, and Manuel, a true gentleman, promised Gloria that he would prepare her breakfast in bed for the rest of her career. It only ceased five years ago after a stroke that took away his ability to carry a breakfast tray.

In 2020, he and Gloria lost their firstborn daughter, Gloria Victoria, leaving him with irreparable heartache.

He leaves behind his wife Gloria Márquez-Sterling; and his two daughters, Carolina Márquez-Sterling and Loli Márquez-Sterling; and grandson, Nicolás Charles Tanner, son of his deceased daughter, Gloria V. Tanner.