Tribute to Poet Fina García-Marruz on Her Centennial

April 13, 2023

The celebration of the multi-awarded poet Fina García-Marruz will be held in Madrid in grand style on April 18th. On the occasion of the presentation of Pequeñas memorias, written by Fina in 1955 and published now in the centennial year of her birth, we pay tribute in this way to the Cuban writer, considered by many one of the most important lyrical voices of Spanish America.

Pequeñas memorias was written by Fina García Marruz in 1955. She was 32 years old and had already published Las miradas perdidas (1951) and other poetry collections.

This is not merely a book of reminiscences or anecdotes in the conventional style. Here Fina tells us about her family, her childhood and adolescence, her conversion to Catholicism, with a profound and intense poetic charge; she reveals very intimate aspects of her character to us, reflects on happiness "to which we do not ask, as we do of death or life, a justification," about Havana of her time; she speaks to us of her friendship with Cuban writer Gastón Baquero and of the impression made on her by listening to, reading, and meeting Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez during his brief stay in Cuba between the end of 1936 and the beginning of 1939. It was thanks to these two authors that Fina came into contact with Poetry, thus, in capital letters: "land without a single shadow, the only portion of joy that I had been given to know in the world, a house in which I have never been a stranger."

Fina García Marruz (Havana, 1923-2022) is one of the greatest poets of our language. Her verses are collected in three books: Las miradas perdidas, Visitaciones, and Habana del centro.

Her essayistic work includes, among many other published and unpublished works, Temas martianos, Hablar de la poesía, Quevedo, and La familia de 'Orígenes'. Among her awards, the Pablo Neruda Iberoamerican Poetry Prize (2007), the XX Queen Sofía Iberoamerican Poetry Prize (2011), and the Federico García Lorca Prize (2011) stand out.

Welcoming remarks:
- Enrique Ojeda, general director of Casa de América.

Participants:
- Silvia R. Rivero, painter and illustrator.
- Marifé Santiago, writer.
- José María Vitier, Cuban musician and composer.
- Mayda Bustamante, editor of Huso editores.

At the end of the event José María Vitier will perform pieces dedicated to Fina García Marruz on piano.