The Poetry of Indio Naborí Evoked at Buenos Aires Book Fair

May 9, 2022

With displays of affection and recognition toward one of the most beloved Cuban bards by his people, a conversation about the Centenary of poet Jesús Orta Ruíz, El Indio Naborí, took place in Buenos Aires, in which prominent intellectuals from the Island participated, including writer, essayist and professor Francisco López Sacha; poet, narrator and essayist Jorge Ángel Hernández Pérez; writer, editor, journalist and professor Yamil Díaz Gómez; and writer and cultural promoter Karel Alexei Leyva Ferrer.

The meeting was dedicated to the 100 years of the birth of the emblematic poet who came into the world in rural areas of what is now the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, on September 30, 1922 and died in Havana on December 30, 2005.

An extraordinary improviser of the décima who improvised under the light of love every subject that, after the presentation of a set rhyme, drew out a spontaneous and daring response. The work of the great man and at the same time simple, master of rhymes, passionate about verse, seduced, once again the spirit of those present, based on the assessments offered.

Jesús Orta Ruiz became known by the pseudonym El Indio Naborí, although his titles also appeared under the names Jesús Ribona, Juan Criollo and Martín de la Hoz.

Also recognized within island journalism, the 1995 National Literature Prize was born in the bosom of a humble family of peasant origin and developed a great passion for reading poetry, on which he conducted numerous essays and techniques, an activity that led him to the enrichment of the décima, converted into a sign of Cuban national identity. His work was translated into English, French, Italian, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian, Chinese and Vietnamese. He collaborated with the magazine Bohemia and other national publications.

In the interventions of the Cuban intellectuals, it was also highlighted that at the end of the thirties, Naborí burst onto the scene of Cuban popular literature, at a time when the décima, both written and improvised, showed a true poverty of poetic resources. "It was, as prestigious poet Waldo Leyva said, a décima that was based, basically, on the visual image, descriptive, marked by simple tropology, where the simile was the most used resource."

Jesús Orta Ruiz brought about the turning point of the Cuban décima while being, at the same time, one of its greatest exponents.