Cuban Writer and Playwright Antón Arrufat Dies in Havana

May 21, 2023

The renowned Cuban poet, narrator and playwright Antón Arrufat, National Literature Prize winner (2000), died at the age of 87, the Ministry of Culture reported today.

Born in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba on August 14, 1935, his family moved to Havana in 1947, when he was 11 years old, where he graduated from the university with a degree in Philology.

From a young age he was interested in literature and theater. His theatrical piece El caso se investiga, premiered in 1957, became a milestone, as it united for the first time on the national stage European avant-garde heritage with the vernacular.

During that period he published criticism, theatrical pieces, narratives and poems in the magazine Ciclón. In 1962 his first book appeared, En claro, which collected his poems from adolescence.

Arrufat worked at the publication Lunes de Revolución, and also founded and directed for five years the prestigious magazine Casa de las Américas; together with a group of intellectuals he was a founder of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.

His theatrical pieces have been translated into Polish, English and French and have been staged in the United States, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Poland. He has published in the magazines Europe, L'Arc, Les Lettres, Quimera, Siempre, Ever green, and in almost all Cuban magazines.

For his piece Los siete contra Tebas (1968) he was awarded the Theater Prize of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC).

He received honorable mention for Theater for El vivo al pollo and for Poetry for Repaso final in the Casa de las Américas Prize, and also obtained the Literary Criticism award for La caja está cerrada (1984), Lirios sobre fondos de espadas (1985), La tierra permanente (1987) and La noche del aguafiestas (2000).

The outstanding Cuban writer was awarded the Alejo Carpentier medal and the distinction for Cuban Culture.

In 2003 Editorial Letras Cubanas published for him the theatrical piece Las tres partes del criollo, and in 2005, his essay collection El hombre discursivo.