Raúl Roa Kourí

Former Cuban diplomat and writer, son of Raúl Roa García (the Minister of Dignity, 1907-1982).

Raúl was born on Calzada de Jesús del Monte, in Havana. He comes from a family of professionals; his maternal grandfather (Santiago Kourí) was of Lebanese origin, while his paternal grandfather, Ramón Roa (from Cifuentes), was a mambí in the War of 1868. His father, Raúl Roa García (1907-1982), was a distinguished diplomat in the early stage of the Cuban Revolution; his mother, Ada Kourí (1917-2005), was a cardiologist who worked at Calixto García Hospital.

Initially he lived in the residence of the Kourí grandparents located in Perseverancia, later in El Vedado and the Kholy neighborhood, until moving all three to 38 and Petit Boulevard (today Calle 36) in Miramar.

He had Antonio Vázquez Gallo as his grammar teacher, who wrote a work called Camorra, which he staged at the Auditórium Theater (today Amadeo Roldán Auditorium Theater) with the Theater Patronato, and Vázquez Gallo thought that Raúl could work, playing the role of a young Galician.

Also in the theater was Félix B. Caignet, writer of the series Ángeles de la calle, who asked Vázquez Gallo for Raúl to participate in the program Ángeles de la calle. Vázquez Gallo contacted the family, really with the mother, who authorized him to be in the series, in the character of Mayito, who was characterized as the rich boy with rags in his soul.

He also worked in the Experimental Radio Theater, where he played the young Julián del Casal, the young Rubén Martínez Villena, and the role of the child who dies with Pablo de la Torriente Brau in Majadahonda (Guadarrama), in Spain.

He learned to play guitar with Sergio Vitier. In that context he meets and shares with Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, Sara González, and Vicente Feliú.

From a young age he was fond of painting, work which he did later while in Prague, and later when he was in Brazil he created quite a few oil paintings, managing to impress and influence the painting of René Portocarrero.

At age 23, Carlos Lechuga proposed him to accompany him to work at the Cuban diplomatic mission in Santiago de Chile. He worked for 14 years in New York as Cuban ambassador to the UN. He has held diplomatic service positions in Prague, Paris, Rome, Mexico City, Brasilia, and Santiago de Chile.

He worked at the Vatican, a small sui generis state, the head of the Catholic Church, where he presented his credentials to Pope John Paul II. The Pope received him in his personal office, an occasion when he asked him about Fidel Castro and also about Raúl Castro.

A lover of Baroque music, he prefers Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, and Antonio Vivaldi; that is the music he prefers for writing and studying. He also likes Cuban music, popular music, trovadoresca music, guaracha, mambo, and danzón.

He has collaborated in the Havana newspapers El Mundo and Revolución, in the magazines Humanismo and Cuadernos Americanos of Mexico, and in Bohemia, Casa de Las Américas, Revolución y Cultura, La Gaceta de Cuba, Opus Habana, and Siempre Viva.

He is the author of "La Batalla en Ginebra", Editora Política, Havana, 1989; "ORCALC, cincuenta años de acción", Unesco, Havana, 2000; "Bolero y Otras Prosas", Havana, 2000; "Roa x Roa", editorial Capiro, Santa Clara, 2000; "En el Torrente", Casa, 2004 (Casa Prize 1999, Mention in the testimony category); "Memoria de Mundos Varios", Editorial Unión, Havana, 2012. In preparation, Papelería de Raúl Roa.

He speaks five languages fluently: Spanish, English, French, Italian, and Portuguese, although he also previously mastered Czech and Russian. He currently works as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Trade, Foreign Investment and Collaboration, with Rodrigo Malmierca.