Nara Araujo Carruana

Ph.D. in Philological Sciences. Full Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of La Habana. Full Professor at the Autonomous Metropolitan University, Mexico City, Mexico. Specialist in Literary Theory and Criticism, defender of feminism and fighter against the marginalization of women, who also assumed responsibilities as head of the Department of Hispanic Literatures at the School of Letters of the UH, Director of University Extension and of the magazine "Universidad de La Habana".

Professor, researcher and essayist. Born in La Habana, no one, even though many knew her well, could suppose that she had more than six decades of existence. Her availability, her perpetual drive for updating in the intellectual field, the ease of her dealings with students, academics, writers, gave the impression of perpetual youth.

To speak of Nara means to refer, first and foremost, to a pedagogue, to someone who held forth, always based on the highest demand for quality. It was not only a pleasure to listen to her lectures, but she contributed to the renewal of theoretical studies at the School of Letters of the Habana University with her selection of Texts of Literary Theory and Criticism. We must not forget that she received the coveted Academic Palms in France, as well as other distinctions that she knew how to carry with that naturalness that only the great of spirit possess.

She was also one of the promoters of "gender" studies in the country. Her very sharp gaze lingered on feminine writing from various periods and latitudes. The book Viajeras al Caribe, published in 1983, is already an indispensable volume on this subject, without that meaning we hold any less the quality of her compilations of shorter essays El alfiler y la mariposa and Diálogos en el umbral.

Her acceptance speech to the Cuban Academy of the Language, which dealt with the image that a group of travelers had been fixing of our Island. It was discovering ourselves from the gaze of the other, from alterity, and although her presentation was marked by the most rigorous theoretical analysis, the gentleness and pleasantness of her style made the audience's attention remain rapt. She was able to occupy her academic seat for very little time, but from it she had a very useful role as Secretary, for whom it mattered not only the order and punctuality of documents but the human, ecumenical and congregating treatment that smoothed many rough edges and facilitated the work of the institution.

She was the wife of Lisandro Otero. With Nara we lost not only a writer of value, but above all, one of the great ladies of Creole culture.

Contributions
"Construction of Race in French and Hispanic American Romanticisms"
"Cultural Identity in the Novel of the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean (second half of the 20th century)" at the Institute of Letters, Federal University Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
"The Feminine Novel of the Caribbean (second half of the 20th century)," University of Santa Catarina, Brazil.
"Postmodernity and Feminist Theories," Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
She has given master lectures at universities in England, United States, Brazil, Moscow, France, Mexico, Venezuela, Jamaica; at the universities of Cambridge and Warwick, England. Visiting Professor (undergraduate) at the University of Paris VIII, France.

Publications
"Viajeras al Caribe" (compilation, introduction and notes)
"Romantic Vision of the Other"
"El alfiler y la mariposa"
"Gender, Voice and Writing in Cuba and the Caribbean"
"The Trace and the 'O time' time and the trace" (translation to Portuguese),
"Florianópolis"
"Texts of Literary Theories and Criticism".
She has also published more than fifty articles in specialized magazines and equally important has been her participation as lecturer or presenter at international conferences fundamentally related to feminism. All of them constitute contributions to science and especially enrich the quality of her teaching.

Founding Member of the Chair of Woman at the University of La Habana. President of the National Commission for the Study Programs of the Letters Career Member of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Arts and Letters. Member of the Latin American Studies Association and the Caribbean Studies Association; Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation. Florida International University, USA; Member of the National Research System, Level II, CONACYT, Mexico.

Distinctions and Recognitions
Distinction "Rafael María de Mendive"
Medal "José Tey"
Commemorative Medal 250 years of the University of La Habana, Academic Palms of France
Prize in the Anthology Competition for Teaching of the Undergraduate Degrees of the UAM-Iztapalapa, with the anthology "Texts of Literary Theories and Criticism" (from formalism to postcolonial studies),
Prize for the best applied result of greatest contribution to Higher Education for "Texts of Literary Theory and Criticism" awarded by the University of La Habana.