Olga Portuondo Zúñiga

===BODY===
Doctor of Historiographical Sciences Olga Portuondo Zúñiga, National Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities 2010, which is awarded each year in recognition of a lifetime of work, is a transcendental voice of contemporary letters in Cuba.

In 1967 she earned her degree in History from the Universidad de Oriente in Santiago de Cuba, the city where she has resided for years, and achieved the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences from the Universidad de La Habana.

Olga has an extensive body of work, characterized by the novelty and originality of her themes, which have elucidated numerous facets of culture and regional and national history. Significant presence in national culture through the exercise of research, teaching and the rescue of historical-cultural heritage, and the international projection and recognition of her work and teaching.

Olga Portuondo is the Historian of the City of Santiago de Cuba and Director of the Office of the Historian of the City, a city that just celebrated last July the 495th anniversary of its founding as a town by Spanish colonizers.

Among her numerous books are Santiago de Cuba, from its foundation to the Ten Years' War (1996); El Cobre: national sanctuary (1997); The primate cathedral of Cuba (1997); A British defeat in Cuba (2000, Prize of Criticism), and The saga of the Valiant (2003).

She is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and the Union of Historians of Cuba, and an Honorary member of the Club Friends of Indigenous Culture (CACI); she has also received the Frank País Order, the Distinction for National Culture, the José María Heredia Recognition Plaque, the Julio Le Riverend Distinction; she is a full professor in the Department of History of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Universidad de Oriente, senior researcher of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba and associate researcher of the Casa del Caribe.

She has been nominated for the National Prize for Social Sciences; she has received the Prize of Criticism 2000, the Oriente Prize for historical essay Emilio Bacardí 2004.

She is co-author of Historical synthesis of Santiago de Cuba province, fundamental aspects; and author of José Antonio Saco: eternally controversial, in addition to collaborating with numerous publications from Santiago, Cuba in general, and from Venezuela, Spain, France and the United States.

Portuondo Zúñiga exhibits an extensive bibliographic work, referenced in the Dictionary of Santiago Writers (Ediciones Santiago, 2005) by León Estrada: Family Letters. Francisco Estrada y Céspedes; The Chinese Empire; Nicolás Joseph de Ribera; Ancient Egypt; Among slaves and free persons of colonial Cuba; The Virgin of El Cobre; symbol of Cubanness; Santiago de Cuba, from its foundation to the Ten Years' War; El Cobre: national sanctuary; The primate cathedral of Cuba; Creole vignettes; A British defeat in Cuba; The saga of the Valiant; A Cuban liberal in the court of Isabel II; Santiago de Cuba, French settlers and coffee development 1798-1809; Some reflections on the V Centenary of discovery; Bayamo, the homeland and Cuban nationality; Creoleness and local homeland in Cuban nationality; Santiago de Cuba and the Spanish-Cuban-American war; What I saw; and Seminary School San Basilio Magno.

She is a full professor in the Department of History of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Universidad de Oriente, senior researcher of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, associate researcher of the Casa del Caribe, historian of the city of Santiago de Cuba of the Office of the Conservator of the City, and is also a member of the editorial board of the magazine Del Caribe.

She has published the books: Family Letters. Francisco Estrada y Céspedes (1969, 1989); The Chinese empire (2000 bce-1912 ce) (1984); Nicolás Joseph de Ribiera (1986); Ancient Egypt (1985); The Virgin of El Cobre; symbol of Cubanness (1996); Santiago de Cuba, from its foundation to the Ten Years' War (1996); El Cobre: national sanctuary (1997); The primate cathedral of Cuba (1997); Creole vignettes (Ediciones Santiago, 2001); A British defeat in Cuba (2000, Prize of Criticism), The saga of the Valiant (Ediciones Santiago, 2003); A Cuban liberal in the court of Isabel II (2003); and the brochures: Santiago de Cuba, French settlers and coffee development 1798-1809 (1992); Some reflections on the V Centenary of discovery (1992); Bayamo, the homeland and Cuban nationality (1993); Creoleness and local homeland in Cuban nationality (1994); Santiago de Cuba and the Spanish-Cuban-North American war (1995).

As co-author she has published Multiple vision of Antonio Maceo and Harp of living trunks (with Daisy Cué Fernández).

She also has collaborations in collective books and journals such as Sic, Del Caribe, Claras Luces, Siga la marcha, Journal of the José Martí National Library, Santiago, Revolution and Culture, Bohemia, Our history (Venezuela), Islas, Temas, Le Espace Caraibe (France), Secuencia (Mexico), Le francais dans l'orient cubain (France). She has traveled to Spain, Mexico, France, Colombia, Puerto Rico, the United States, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, among other countries, to various events.