Nicolás Cristobal Guillén Batista

Cuban writer, considered by his work to be the National Poet. Founder of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC). His poetry is considered the fullest expression of the most legitimate and revolutionary popular aspirations in the historical period in which it was produced. He introduced the Black theme into poetry in the Spanish language. His work has been translated into many languages and has received laudatory commentary and studies from distinguished personalities in contemporary letters because he has been able to fully interpret the fighting spirit of human beings and their hope of conquering a better society. Author of titles such as: Sóngoro cosongo and El son entero.

Son of Nicolás Guillén y Urra, journalist, senator, "killed by soldiers" who assassinated him in the 1917 civil war, and of Argelia Batista y Arrieta.

Guillén completed his primary studies in his native city, where he graduated with his bachelor's degree in 1919. He earned his living, however, in various occupations: typographer, employee, reporter.

At the University of Havana he enrolled to study Law, in the 1921-1922 academic year, but he abandoned it after a year.

His first verses were published in the magazine Camagüey Gráfico, around 1919. During this period he established contact with the literary group of Manzanillo, headed by Manuel Navarro Luna and Juan Francisco Sariol. In the magazine animated by this group, Orto, numerous poems by the young Guillén saw the light of day.

In 1920 he was a correspondent with poet Vicente Menéndez Roque for the literary page of the newspaper Las Dos Repúblicas, whose first period had been directed by his father. That same year, Guillén came to Havana and struck up a friendship with Rubén Martínez Villena and other members of the gathering at Café Martí (Núñez Olano, Tallet, Marinello, Serpa, Pedroso).

The first issue of the university magazine Alma Mater, in which Julio Antonio Mella appeared as "administrator," published the sonnets "On the Margin of My Study Books" which served to expose the condition of a university student in those days.

In Camagüey (1922) he worked in the editorial department of the newspaper El Camagüeyano and founded a short-lived magazine: Lis. From that period dates his first book of poems, Brain and Heart, which he did not publish at the time and which appears collected by Ángel Augier in the first volume, second edition (1965), of his fundamental biography Nicolás Guillén; Notes for a Biographical-Critical Study.

In 1927 he returns to the capital, where he would reside from then on. Around that time he abandons his initial modernism and publishes poems of frank avant-garde style in Orto. On the page "Ideals of a Race" in Diario de la Marina, to which he contributed numerous articles against racial prejudice, Guillén published, on April 20, 1930, his Motivos de son, which provoked the most transcendent literary scandal of the neo-colonial republic. With those eight brief poems, through which son entered poetry as a rhythmic form supported by a vision of the grace, color, and exploited life of the Cuban Black, Guillén attracts the attention of critics and readers.

Starting with Sóngoro cosongo, which includes the Motivos, a book that is greeted with a letter from Miguel de Unamuno, Guillén's work begins to spread. That is, this, his true first book opens the doors of consecration for him.

In subsequent books the presence of the racial becomes critically profound and transforms into an element in which the national reasserts itself and confronts imperialist penetration as well as the prejudices and betrayals of the anti-national oligarchy. In this sense, the "Elegy for a Living Soldier" (1937) is a true revolutionary program. This is the reason why Guillén's poetry is considered the fullest and most definitive expression of the most legitimate and revolutionary popular aspirations in the historical period in which it was produced.

Guillén has been an exemplary cultivator of the elegy, with his masterwork being the "Elegy to Jesús Menéndez." One must not forget "The Surname," "Cuban Elegy," "Camagüey Elegy," and the "Elegy to Jacques Roumain" which together with the "Elegy to Emmett Till" made up the Elegies section of his book The Dove of Popular Flight.

In 1937, Guillén attended, as part of the Cuban delegation, the Second International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture, held in Valencia during the Spanish Civil War. That same year, and there, he joined the ranks of the Communist Party. During the existence of the Popular Socialist Party he was a member of its National Committee. Because of his political ideas in favor of proletarian revolution and against imperialism, he suffered persecution, imprisonment, and exile.

From 1953 to 1958, during the Batista tyranny, he had to remain outside Cuba. In 1954 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. Guillén traveled intensely throughout America, Europe, Asia, and Africa and represented Cuba at innumerable congresses. His work, of exceptional significance in Spanish-language literature, has been translated into all languages and has received laudatory commentary and studies from distinguished personalities in contemporary letters. He was a prolific and tireless journalist who collaborated in almost all Cuban periodicals and in the most important foreign publications.

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution he returned from his prolonged exile. Around this time (early 1959), Guillén resumed his periodic contributions to the newspaper Hoy, organ of the Popular Socialist Party, in sections that appeared under the titles of "Chronicle," "Asperges," "Motivo," and "Sunday Sun."

In 1961 the First National Congress of Cuban Writers and Artists was held in Havana, at which Guillén was elected to preside over the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), an institution he presided over until 1985 and which was born from that congress.

In 1962, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, cultural institutions held events in his honor, including an exhibition of his life and work at the José Martí National Library. In 1972, the entire country celebrated his 70th birthday. The Cuban Book Institute published his Poetic Works (1920-1972), in two volumes, with prologue and notes by his biographer Ángel Augier. The celebration of his 80th birthday in 1982 had international resonance.

Casa de las Américas published the volume Compilation of Texts on Nicolás Guillén in its Multiple Assessment series, with a selection and prologue by Nancy Morejón. This volume also includes interviews and drawings by the author.

The José Martí National Library published the Bibliography of Nicolás Guillén, prepared by María Luisa Antuña and Josefina García Carranza. He won the Viareggio prize in Rome.

In 1975 he was conferred the title of Doctor Honoris Causa in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Havana in recognition of his high literary merit, indisputable mastery of the Spanish language, and his sustained revolutionary activism. That same year he was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal in Kingston, the highest cultural distinction of Jamaica. That same year he was declared an Illustrious Guest of the city of Caracas, Venezuela. In Great Britain, invited by Arts Council, he participated in the International Poetry Festival and gave poetry readings at the Universities of London and Bristol. The University of West Indies of Jamaica awarded him the title of Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa and the Republic of Bulgaria the International "Christo Botev" Prize.

In 1978 the University of Bordeaux awarded him the title of Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa. For its part, the University of Tabasco, in Villahermosa, Mexico, awarded him the title of Emeritus Master and in Mexico City the Institute of Fine Arts awarded him the diploma for Human Merit. The National Institute of Culture of Panama awarded him the "Ricardo Miró" National Poetry Prize, and the University of Panama a diploma of recognition for contributions made to Hispanic American culture. The State Council of the Republic of Cuba awarded him the "José Martí" order, the highest decoration of the Cuban State, and the Ministry of Culture the 1983 National Prize for Literature. That same year Guillén received the Asan World Poetry Prize, awarded by the Asan Memorial Association of Kerala, India. In Colombia, in 1984, he was decorated with the Caro and Cuervo Order and the universities of the country awarded him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa, as did the University of Guayaquil, Ecuador. In 1985, the National University of San Marcos of Lima granted him the same honor. Many countries have also awarded him honorable national distinctions, recognizing him as one of the great poets of our century.

With reason, in 1982, the III Congress of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) declared that Nicolás Guillén "represents the highest current example of creative life and work, which by his unwavering fidelity to the patriotic and revolutionary tradition of Cuban culture, has been able to express, with vigorous artistic genius, the sensitivity, character, historical process, and combative spirit of a people, of a geographic region, and of an era."

"We are proud," the declaration adds, "that these exceptional characteristics of his existence and his poetry—which made him worthy of our people designating him National Poet—have been decisive in the vast dissemination of his work throughout the world. This vibrant and ardent poetry... has been translated into the most diverse languages and is read, recited, and sung by millions of beings on the planet, because he has been able to fully interpret the fighting spirit of the men of our era, and their hope of conquering a better society, based on justice, freedom, and peace."

Nicolás Guillén died in Havana on July 16, 1989.

Bibliography
Motivos de son (1930).
Sóngoro cosongo (1931).
West Indies, Ltd. (1934).
Cantos para soldados y sones para turistas (1937).
El son entero (1947).
La paloma de vuelo popular (1958).
Prosa de prisa (anthology) (1963).
Tengo (1964).
Poemas de amor (1964).
Antología mayor (1964).
El gran zoo (1967).
La rueda dentada (1972).
El diario que a diario (1972).
Obra poética (2 volumes) (1972) with prologue and notes by Ángel Augier, Reprints 1980, 1985, and 2002.
El corazón con que vivo (1975).
Prosa de prisa (3 volumes) (1975).
Poemas manuables (1975).
Elegías (1977).
Por el mar de las Antillas anda un barco de papel (1978). [cover]
Música de Cámara (1979).
Páginas vueltas.
Memorias (1982).
Sol de domingo (1982).