Onelio Jorge Cardoso

===BODY===
He was born in Calabazar de Sagua, a small town in the center of the Island, belonging to the former province of Las Villas, on May 11, 1914.

He studied until high school, which he completed at the Institute of Secondary Education in Santa Clara. Unable to continue his studies due to family economic difficulties, he worked at various trades, including as a traveling salesman, which allowed him to know different areas of the national geography, especially the central part of the country, as well as countless popular personalities who served him, on many occasions, as models for his characters and stories.

He began writing at a very young age—in 1936 he won a short story contest from Revista Social—but it was not until the 1940s that he began to become known, obtaining mentions in the prestigious "Alfonso Hernández Catá" Contest and finally the first prize in 1945 with «Los carboneros».

That same year, his first book, Taita, diga usted cómo, was published in Mexico, prepared by José Antonio Portuondo. He is also represented—with the story «Nino»—in Cuentos cubanos contemporáneos, an anthology equally prepared by Portuondo and published in Mexico, and in Cuentos cubanos. Antología, compiled by Enma Pérez that same year, with «Los carboneros». While developing his vocation as a writer, he performs various jobs, including peddler, medicine salesman, and rural teacher, work he performs, together with Raúl Ferrer, in a small school at Central Narcisa.

In 1948 he moved to La Habana. There he worked as a newsroom editor at the Emisora Mil Diez; he also writes scripts for commercial radio, and was Head of Editing of the film newsmagazine Cine-Revista.

In 1952 he obtained the National Peace Prize for his story «Hierro viejo».

Although Onelian stories continued to appear in magazines and anthologies, his second book did not appear until 1958: El cuentero, published by the Central University of Las Villas.

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, he held several responsibilities: he directed the Institute of Musical Rights, was head of special reports for the newspaper Granma, head of editing of Pueblo y Cultura and of the Semanario Pionero. He also worked as a documentary screenwriter at the ICAIC and in the Film Section of the Rebel Army. Since 1961 he belonged to the Executive of the Literature Section of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC).

El caballo de coral, his third book and second in Cuba, was published in 1960.

In 1962 the first edition of his Cuentos completos was published, with drawings by René Portocarrero.

That same year he published Gente de pueblo, a collection of reports with photos by José Tabío, who was a lifelong friend of the author, and a prologue by Samuel Feijóo.

In 1964 a new book of stories appears, La otra muerte del gato, and he obtains the "26 de julio" prize for his report «Santiago antes del 26», which was published in the magazine Pueblo y Cultura in October of that year.

The following year, he publishes a small booklet with the story «El perro», for the La Tertulia editions of UNEAC, and in 1966, Iba caminando.

A new edition of Cuentos completos, which includes the new stories published until then, appears that same year, this time with a prologue by Raúl Aparicio.

This collection was re-edited by the Instituto del libro in 1969, and by UNEAC in 1975, under the name of Cuentos.

In a small booklet, with no publication date, titled Tres cuentos para niños, three of the most significant children's stories by Onelio Jorge were published for the first time in an independent volume.

Abrir y cerrar los ojos, which begins his stage of greater maturity, appears in 1969. In the ten years since the triumph of the Revolution, five collections of his stories have been published in various countries (Russia, Hungary, Romania, Poland), and his stories have been included in seven anthologies published in Moscow, Sofia, Mexico City, etc., as well as in seven others published in La Habana.

In 1974 El hilo y la cuerda is published, later translated into French and published in Paris in 1982, and Caballito blanco, which collects most of the children's stories that had previously been published in magazines or other books. This volume was translated almost immediately and appeared in its respective languages in Prague, Bratislava, and Riga.

The Letras Cubanas collection published, in 1975, a new volume with all of Onelian story production up to that year, under the title of Cuentos, which was translated into Polish and published in Krakow in 1980. The author reviewed and in some cases made minor variations to the stories appearing in this volume, so it should be considered as his definitive version.

In the following years, selections of Onelio Jorge's stories were published under titles such as La melipona (1977), Crecimiento (1980), Cuentos escogidos (1981), among others, published both in Cuba and abroad.

In 1976, he served as Cultural Advisor to the Embassy of Cuba in Peru, and upon his return he was elected President of the Literature Section (today Writers Association) of UNEAC, a position he held until his death.

A new collection of his reports, this time those made after 1959, appears in 1981 with the title of Gente de un nuevo pueblo.

In 1983 he was conferred the status of Doctor Honoris Causa by the "Simón Bolívar" University in Bogotá, Colombia; and he received the same honorary degree from the University of La Habana in 1984.

His last book for adults, La cabeza en la almohada, was published in 1983, and Negrita, a novella for children, in 1984; and a second edition appeared in 1985 in Spain. The two children's stories included in La cabeza en la almohada later appeared in a separate volume, under the title of Dos ranas y una flor.

He died in La Habana on May 29, 1986.

His stories have been translated into more than 12 languages, and many have appeared in anthologies in various parts of the world. Several have been adapted for theater, ballet, and film. Onelio Jorge Cardoso is considered Cuba's national storyteller.