Mario Kuchilan del Sol

Cartoonist and caricaturist at the beginning of his journalistic career. He collaborated and worked thereafter in El Mundo, Alma Máter, El País, La Semana and La Calle. He gained renown for a caricature he made of Batista, dressed as a rumbera, with a caption that read "Amalia Batista, Amalia Mayombe, que tiene esta negra que mata los hombres".

He had the opportunity —and the intention— to be a very close witness to the main political and revolutionary events that occurred during his lifetime, which extended throughout the twentieth century, and he reproduced in his chronicles, with singular style, the misfortunes of the period called the Republic.

He wrote the popular Babel section in Prensa Libre. Host of a television program on Channel 2. He maintained the En Zafarrancho section in Bohemia. He also published it in Juventud Rebelde. Many of his chronicles were published in a book under the title Fabulario. He was a victim of a severe beating during Batista's tyranny.

He completed his early studies at Colegio Santo Tomás. Subsequently he entered the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de La Habana, where he graduated with his Bachelor's degree.

He took his first steps in journalism with some contributions that appeared in La Semana in 1926. At the Universidad de la Habana he studied civil engineering, architecture and earned a doctorate in mathematical physical sciences, without completing them. During this time he also attended classes, irregularly, at the Academia de Pintura San Alejandro. Around 1930, as a university student, he served as artistic director of Alma Mater.

He was linked to the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario (DEU), which fought the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado. Shortly thereafter he began working in the printing workshops of El Mundo, as well as El País sometime later, where he performed the functions of cartoonist, ornamental designer, lettering artist, caricaturist, photo retoucher and engraving caption writer.

In 1936 he joined the Frente Nacional Antifascista and in 1941 he entered as writer and political commentator at the newspaper Prensa Libre, where he created the famous "Babel" section, which was characterized by its sharp critiques. At Bohemia magazine he also took charge around this time of a section he titled "Babelgrama".

He was linked to the authentic governments of Grau and Prío, and firmly opposed the coup d'état led by Batista in March 1952.

Due to his constant accusations against the new regime through journalistic articles, in the month of August he was taken from his home one night and brutally beaten by agents of the police force dressed in civilian clothes, a fact that shocked national public opinion. Shortly after he went into exile and settled in Miami.

With the promulgation of the Amnesty Law in early 1955, he returned to Cuba and continued his journalistic work, as well as his oppositionist stance, now linked to the Movimiento 26 de Julio. For this reason he was detained and interrogated on several occasions.

In 1958 he appeared on the television network of Channel 2 as a political commentator. During this period he also collaborated in El Mundo, Labor, El País, Karikato and Zig-Zag.

After the revolutionary triumph he created the "En Zafarrancho" section in Bohemia, which he wrote for many years. He also created the "Fabulario" section in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, with the objective of exposing the corruption that prevailed during the pseudo-republic.

In fulfillment of journalistic missions he traveled to various countries. In 1974 he joined the Partido Comunista de Cuba. Among other honors, he received the Distinción por la Cultura Nacional, the Orden Félix Elmuza, the Medalla Raúl Gómez García, the Medalla Conmemorativa XX Aniversario del Moncada and the Orden Alfredo López for maintaining more than twenty-five years in journalistic work Jorge Domingo Cuadriello

Awards and Distinctions
Orders
Félix Elmuza.
Alfredo López for his twenty-five years in journalistic work Jorge Domingo Cuadriello.

Medals
Distinción por la Cultura Nacional.
Raúl Gómez García.
Conmemorativa XX Aniversario del Moncada.

Some tried to criticize his way of writing, calling it vulgar. But let Mario himself respond to them:

We have been censured, worse, condemned, as ordinary and coarse. Impotent to disagree on the substance, not for lack of desire, he slides the discussion toward the form. When the people said that "Batista echó un pie" they stated a truth that did not contemplate the demure expression of "that he left". When he says that Batista, on March 13, 1957, "tenía una cagazón de argolla" he expresses that he had something more than an insurmountable fear. There is no other way to describe that state of mind.

He died on August 2, 1983 as a result of hepatitis.