The most Cuban of all the Swiss

April 6, 2021

Although Alejo Carpentier always claimed to have been born on Maloja Street, in Old Havana, researchers from the Cuban foundation that bears his name discovered the certificate that declares Switzerland as his birthplace.

Alejo Carpentier Valmont was registered at birth, on December 26, 1904, with the name Alexis in the Swiss city of Lausanne. The proof document remained hidden for many years and came to light in the book Epistolario Carpentier-Fernández de Castro, a compilation by Sergio Chaple, published by Editorial Unión in 2009.

The documentary evidence of the writer's Swiss nationality dates from 1921, the year in which he presented it to enroll in the Architecture program at the University of Havana. After his death in 1980, some researchers of his life, such as Guillermo Cabrera Infante, began to gather data that could prove it, especially testimonies.

"Since there is still some uncertainty about certain biographical aspects, one cannot know with certainty, but it is believed that Carpentier lived in Switzerland until he was six or seven years old, when his parents came to try their fortune in Cuba," comments Yuri Rodríguez, researcher at the Foundation.

During the years of the machadato, he was taken prisoner for signing the Manifesto of Workers, Intellectuals and Artists, a declaration of principles ahead of its time. Since there was no concrete cause to condemn them, the Cuban nationals were ordered to be released on bail of 2,000 pesos, while foreigners were deported.

Through the efforts of historian Emilio Roig, a friend of the family and of his mother Lina Valmont, Alejo obtained a false certificate to change his original nationality and be credited as Cuban, thus avoiding expulsion from the country.

"An amusing detail of this story is that, according to people close to the family, Alejo's mother, who always took care to keep the secret of his nationality, let slip once, in conversation, that it was snowing on the day of her son's birth," the researcher said.

"This information has been used by people outside the Island, especially intellectuals, in a malicious manner, but the fact that Alejo Carpentier was born outside Cuba did not prevent him from being a member of the Communist Party and diplomat of the country abroad and always feeling Cuban, according to his own words," said Rafael Rodríguez Beltrán, vice president of the foundation.

Other Cuban intellectuals, like Carpentier, were not born on the island. Among them are Cintio Vitier, Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Graciela Pogolotti, and Fayad Jamís.