Mirta Aguirre Carreras

Cuban poet, critic, and essayist. She earned her doctorate in law in 1941. She conducted special studies in literature, music, and Marxist philosophy. She was an active member of the Communist Youth League, the Anti-imperialist League, International Workers' Defense, the Communist Party of Cuba, and the Socialist People's Party. Vice-president of the Democratic Federation of Cuban Women and political officer of the Cultural Society Nuestro Tiempo.

For years she was in charge of the cinema, theater, and music section of the newspaper Hoy. After 1959 she was director of the Theater and Dance Section of the National Council of Culture.

She published, among others, Recuerdos de Mella, 1937. Presencia interior (poetry), 1938. Palabras en Juan Cristóbal, 1940. Influencia de la mujer en Iberoamérica (essay), 1947, 1948. Un hombre a través de su obra: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 1948. La Edad de Oro y las ideas martianas sobre educación infantil, 1963. El neorrealismo italiano, 1963. Canción antigua a Che Guevara, 1970. Juegos y otros poemas, 1974. Del encausto a la sangre: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1975.

As of 1962 she joined the School of Arts and Letters of the University of La Habana as a professor, where she held the position of Director of the Department of Spanish Languages and Literatures. She collaborated in the Cuadernos H of the Faculty of Humanities. She was Director of the Institute of Literature and Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. She distinguished herself through her work as a lecturer. She is the author of the "Introduction" to the Cuban edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. At her death she was directing the Institute of Literature and Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba.

Chronology
1912 Born on October 18 in La Habana, daughter of Ercilio Aguirre and Aida Carreras.

1926-1937 Intermittently completes secondary education in Letters and Sciences.

1928 Participates in the founding and serves on the Board of Directors of the Feminine Alliance of Cuba, an organization that later becomes the Radical Union of Women which, guided by the Communist Party, joins the Anti-imperialist League created in 1925 by Julio Antonio Mella.

1931-1933 Joins the Communist Youth League and serves on the Pro-Reorganization Committee of the Student Left Wing. Enters the Communist Party of Cuba in 1932.

1936 Returns to Cuba after a three-year stay in Mexico and joins the Lyceum Lawn Tennis Club, a progressive women's cultural organization. Serves on the Board of Directors of the Lyceum magazine and delivers some of her first lectures on literature at this institution. Begins working in the General Secretariat of the Republic until 1942.

1937 Enrolls at the University of La Habana in Civil Law and Social Sciences and Public Law; however she only graduates in 1941 in Civil Law.

1938 Her first book of poems is published, titled Presencia interior.

1939 Elected delegate to the III National Women's Congress of Cuba. Serves on the Executive Committee organizing the Event.

1941-1945 Serves in the National Anti-fascist Front and the Society of Friends of the USSR.

1942-1947 Serves in the Women's Service for Civil Defense (SFDC) and holds the position of Sub-director of the SFDC Bulletin.

1944-1953 Writes the critical section on Cinema, Theater, and Music for the newspaper Hoy, organ of the Socialist People's Party. In this publication she writes more than two thousand articles that earn her international renown. She also collaborates at different times with Cuban publications such as Mediodía, Mujeres Cubanas, Fundamentos, Cuba Socialista, Bohemia, La Palabra, and others.

1946 Receives the prestigious national journalism award "Justo de Lara" for her article "Fritz en el banquillo," published in Hoy on May 9, 1945.

1947 Her essay "Influencia de la mujer en Iberoamérica" receives first prize at the Ibero-American Floral Games, convened by the Ibero-American Women's Union.

1948 Her essay "Un hombre a través de su obra: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra" wins the contest for Cervantes essays convened by the Lyceum Lawn Tennis Club.

1949 Attends the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace in New York and the World Congress of Partisans for Peace in Paris.

1952-1953 Assumes the position of editor-in-chief of the Marxist magazine La Última Hora.

1953 Serves alongside Carlos Rafael Rodríguez and Juan Marinello on the Commission for Intellectual Work of the PSP. Oversees, until 1959, the Cultural Society "Nuestro Tiempo," advises its magazine, and supports the creation of the dramatic group "Teatro Estudio."

1959 Appointed Advisor of Literature and Publications of the National Institute of Culture.

1961-1962 Organizes and founds, in February 1961, the National School of Art Instructors. Once the National Council of Culture is established in 1962, she directs the National Commission of Theater and Dance of that entity. Participates in the founding of UNEAC, and from this point on is a member, until her death, of the National Committee of this organization.

1962 Joins the faculty of the School of Letters of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of La Habana. Serves on the Editorial Board of the revista Universidad de La Habana.

1966 Directs the editing and publication of the first Cuadernos H of the University of La Habana.

1968 Participates in the creation of the radio program Musical Teaching alongside Cuca Rivero, Olga de Blanck, and Gisela Hernández. Composes children's poems for these programs, set to music by Olga de Blanck and Gisela Hernández.

1970 Publishes her well-known poem "Canción antigua a Che Guevara."

1971 Receives the distinction "Héroes del Moncada" and, by agreement of the Council of State, receives the Medal "250 Aniversario" of the University of La Habana.

1973-1978 Serves on the Permanent Advisory Group of Children's and Youth Literature, alongside Eliseo Diego, Onelio Jorge Cardoso, and other distinguished intellectuals.

1974 Her essay Del encausto a la sangre: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wins the contest "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: su vida y su obra" sponsored by the Secretary of Public Works of Mexico.

Participates, alongside other writers and specialists from MINED, in the selection and development of reading texts for first through sixth grades of primary education, which include numerous poems of hers.

1975 Receives the Medal "XX Aniversario." Participates, alongside Juan Marinello, in the development of the Theses on Artistic and Literary Culture, approved by the First Congress of the P.C.C. and ratified in the second.

1976-1980 Takes over the direction of the Institute of Literature and Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, a position from which she directs the publication of the Dictionary of Cuban Literature, developed by researchers at the institution, and the panorama Historical Profile of Cuban Letters.

1977-1980 Gives lectures at prestigious foreign universities; participates in the II Congress of UNEAC where the Ideological Position Paper Project drafted by her is discussed and is named Vice-president of the Section of Art and Literature of the Editorial Board of the Ministry of Culture.

1980 Publishes her book Ayer de hoy, a compilation of her best essays and articles, as well as unpublished poems.

Dies on August 8 of that year.