Salvador Bueno Menéndez

Essayist, critic, historian, professor and journalist. He is considered one of the most constant and versatile promoters of Cuban literature. National Prize for Social Sciences and Cultural Research.

Salvador Bueno was born in La Habana, on Industria Street between Virtudes and Concordia, in the Centro Habana municipality. His father was Venezuelan and his mother was Cuban; both of Spanish descent.

From childhood he was drawn to the "noble solitary vice" of reading, according to his own words. He studied in his native city and at the University of La Habana, where he graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy and Letters (1942), after defending his thesis on "Enrique Piñeyro and Literary Criticism."

He worked as a teacher in a private school until 1947. He held the chair of Grammar and Literature at the Institute of Pinar del Río, first, and later at those of La Víbora and El Vedado, in La Habana. He obtained by competitive examination the position of instructor in the chair of History of Cuban and Spanish American Literature at the School of Philosophy and Letters of the University of La Habana (1949) and worked as a professor at its Summer School between 1949 and 1956. He belonged to the Hispanocuban Institution of Culture.

During this period he published the Anthology of the Short Story in Cuba. 1902-1952 (1953) and several essays, some with comprehensive approaches such as Outline of Modernism in Cuba (1950), Half a Century of Cuban Literature. 1902-1952, and Polychrome and Flavor of Cuban Costumbristas (the latter two, from 1953); and others more specific: "Biographical and Critical Sketch of a Narrator [Lino Novás Calvo]", "The Literary Ideas of Domingo del Monte" and those compiled in The Letter as Witness (1957), on Spanish American and Cuban literature, among them "Cuban Presence of Valle Inclán", "Alejo Carpentier, Antillean and Universal Novelist" and "Trace and Message of José Martí". Moreover, in this period the first version of his History of Cuban Literature (1954, reprinted in 1959 and 1963) appeared, which, in correspondence with the secondary and higher education plans in effect in Cuba, has been a textbook used by several generations of Cubans and is, without a doubt, a reference text for scholars.

It is striking that he departed at that moment from the generational method –to which other literary historians such as Raimundo Lazo and José Antonio Portuondo do subscribe–, so controversial today but deeply rooted then.

Salvador Bueno traveled through Spain, France and the United States. His essay Trajectory of Enrique Labrador Ruiz (At 25 Years of Labyrinth) (1958) received the prize from the Section of Grammar and Literature of the National College of Sciences and Philosophy and Letters. He published his compilation of The Best Cuban Essayists (1959) and The Best Cuban Short Stories (Lima, 1959-1960). He collaborated with national publications (Cuban Magazine, Caribbean Gazette) and foreign ones (Prodigal Son, Mexico; Magazine of the Indies, Colombia; The Literary Paper, Caracas and Index, Madrid).

In 1962 he joined the faculty of the School of Letters and Arts of the Faculty of Humanities –later Faculty of Philology– at the University of La Habana, and was part of the transformations in Cuban higher education, a process known as University Reform.
He traveled through Hungary, the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries.

In 1964, through the Cuban National Commission of UNESCO, his book Cuban Figures was published, a compendium of brief biographies of important names in the culture of the Island that appeared in a popular format in various publications, which, with some changes, was reprinted in 1980 by UNEAC given the value of the biographical sketches compiled. In that same year 1964 his research Themes and Characters of Cuban Literature was published; as has been noted, his approaches to serial publications from a literary point of view are particularly notable, especially those from the colonial period. He prepared the Orbit of José Antonio Fernández de Castro (1966).

He was appointed literary advisor to the José Martí National Library and served as editor-in-chief of its prestigious magazine. Another compilatory effort of his work appeared in 1967 with the title Approaches to Spanish American Literature; on this occasion continental works and authors were attended to by Bueno and, behind the popular tone of the work, the researcher's analysis proves illuminating on diverse issues of Spanish American letters.

It is very suggestive that a figure dedicated to Hispanism, and in particular to Cuban letters, such as Salvador Bueno, dedicated much of his professional work to studying and disseminating Hungarian and Bulgarian literature: Bueno is to this day the one who has made the greatest effort in doing so. The context of Cuban relations with countries of the then socialist Eastern European bloc made it possible. In 1977 the Hungarian publishing house Corvina published his book Five Centuries of Relations between Hungary and Latin America. In 1977, the Academy of Sciences of Hungary granted him the academic degree of Doctor in Literary Sciences for his thesis The Black in the Spanish American Novel, a work that was published a decade later, in 1986, and aims at a systematization of the black theme in the Spanish American novel through key moments.

In that same prolific year 1977, another volume of essays by Salvador Bueno came to light, From Merlin to Carpentier, nine texts among which stands out the one dedicated to María de las Mercedes de Santa Cruz y Montalvo, Countess of Merlín, a figure with very little critical fortune in Cuban studies.

The intensity of Salvador Bueno's intellectual work also bore fruit in a whole series of anthologies, editions and prologues. Some of the earliest should be highlighted, as a "sample button," since their titles already give an idea of the extent to which he approached them, either as first studies or by sharpening his eye to identify areas requiring new explorations: The Best Cuban Short Stories (1959), The Best Cuban Essayists (1959), Orbit of José A. Fernández de Castro (1966), Cuban Short Stories of the 20th Century (1975), Cuban Short Stories of the 19th Century (1977), Cuban Legends (1978), Poetry and Prose of Diego Vicente Tejera Calzado (1981), Martí by Martí (1982), Short Stories and Novels of Alfonso Hernández Catá (1983), About Placido (1985) and Cuban Costumbristas of the 19th Century (1985)

Salvador Bueno, along with his extensive teaching work, developed a prolific cultural journalism, before and after 1959. He collaborated with Bohemia, Union, House of the Americas, Gazette of Cuba, Magazine of the National Library, American Notebooks (Mexico) and other Cuban and foreign publications.

He achieved recognition in different parts of the world as a tenacious researcher, especially of 19th century and first half of the 20th century essayistic creation, the literary criticism of that period, costumbrista literature and Cuban narrative in general.

He was a member of the Panamerican Columbist Society; founder of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) and the Cuban Center of the International Association of Literary Critics (UNESCO, Paris).

He was a Guest Professor for more than twenty years in the Chair of Spanish at Eotvos Loránd University, in Budapest, Hungary. He was President of Honor of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country (SEAP). From 1995 to 2004 he presided over the Cuban Academy of Language.

Throughout his intellectual career he received multiple awards in recognition of the significance of his work as a professor, historian and critic of literature; in favor of the enrichment, systematization and refinement of Spanish spoken in Cuba; and of the international dissemination of Hispanism: Commemorative Plaque from the city of Kladno (Czechoslovakia, 1967), Plaque for the sesquicentennial of Sándor Petöfi (Hungary, 1973), Plaque for the centennial of Endre Ady (Hungary, 1977), Medal for the 1300 years of Bulgaria (Bulgaria, 1983), José Tey Medal (State Council of the Republic of Cuba, 1983), Medal for 40 years of Socialism in Bulgaria (State Council of Bulgaria, 1984), Plaque for the sesquicentennial of Sturovskej Druziny (Union of Writers of Slovakia, 1986), Medal as founder of the National School of Library Technicians (1987); Fernando Ortiz Medal (Academy of Sciences of Cuba, 1987); National Culture Distinction (Ministry of Culture of Cuba, 1988), Félix Elmuza Distinction (Union of Journalists of Cuba, 1989), Replica of the machete of Generalissimo Máximo Gómez (Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, 1990), Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos Distinction (Federation of Associations of the Asturian Center of La Habana, 1994), Alejo Carpentier Medal (State Council of the Republic of Cuba, 1995), García Lorca Prize (Andalusian Center of La Habana, 1995), Cross of the Republic of Hungary (1996), International José Vasconcelos Prize (North Magazine and Hispanist Affirmation Front A.C., Mexico, 1998), International Fernando Ortiz Prize (Fernando Ortiz Foundation, 2000), National Prize for Cultural Research (Research and Development Center of Cuban Culture Juan Marinello, 2000), Juan Marinello Order (2002) and National Prize for Social Sciences of Cuba (2004).

Salvador Bueno Menéndez died in La Habana on October 22, 2006.

Source: EnCaribe.org