Eugenio Hernández Espinosa is the 2020 National Literature Prize

November 22, 2020

Cuban dramatist Eugenio Hernández Espinosa was awarded last Friday, November 20, with the 2020 National Literature Prize for being the author of significant theatrical works in recent decades, among them the classic María Antonia.

This recognition of Hernández Espinosa's work (Havana, 1936) adds to the National Theater Prize he received in 2005 and the one granted to him by the Casa de las Américas institution in 1977 for his work La Simona.

The theater conceived by the director and founder of the Teatro Caribeño de Cuba group is distinguished by explorations in popular culture and national dramatic traditions, highlight the Island's cultural media.

With the first work he directed for that group, El León y la Joya (1991), by Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, he represented Cuba at the Iberoamerican Theater festivals, in Cádiz, where it was awarded, and at the Autumn festival in Madrid.

This recognition of Hernández Espinosa's work (Havana, 1936) adds to the National Theater Prize he received in 2005 and the one granted to him by the Casa de las Américas institution in 1977.

Dozens of his theatrical pieces have been performed by the main Cuban theater groups and adapted for film and television.

After his time on theatrical stages, some of his works have become film productions, such as Mi socio Manolo and María Antonia itself, which was included in the Cuban Anthology of Contemporary Theater and recorded for the Iberoamerica and its Theater program on Spanish Television in 1989.

He has also been co-screenwriter of the films Patakín, Roble de olor and El Mayor, the latter premiered last March.

Titles such as Calixta Comité, Emelina Cundiamor, Alto riesgo or Lagarto Pisabonito make up a gallery of characters with whom several generations of Cubans have identified.

His trajectory also includes workshops and lectures on dramaturgy for theater and film abroad and at the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños.

The decision to award him the National Literature Prize was made by a jury presided over by writers Eduardo Heras León and made up of Víctor Fowler, Alex Pausides, Leila Leyva and Omar Valiño.

The award will be presented at a ceremony, still without a set date, during the next International Book Fair of Havana, which is traditionally held in the month of February.