Victor Batista Falla, patron, died in La Habana from COVID-19

April 15, 2020

After 60 years without setting foot on the island, Víctor Batista Falla returned for a visit to die in Havana as a consequence of Covid-19.

The patron of Cuban literature in exile returned and died at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) due to complications from coronavirus.

Batista Falla, born in Cuba in 1933 in a wealthy family. Son of Agustín Batista y González de Mendoza, president of the Trust Company, a major bank of the time; and of María Teresa Falla Bonet, heiress of large sugar mills.

Víctor Batista lived in exile since 1960 and left his Philosophy and Letters studies incomplete at the University of Havana. Upon arriving in New York he begins to move in a cultural environment and creates the magazine Exilio (1965-1973) together with Raimundo Fernández Bonilla. Later he financed another magazine, Escandalar (1978-1984). Important intellectuals of the time published in both publications.

Víctor later settled in Madrid and in 1998 founded Editorial Colibrí, which operated until 2013. In the course of those years 37 titles by 27 authors on the Cuban theme saw the light of day. Writers such as Rafael Rojas, Roberto González Echevarría, Marifeli Pérez-Stable, Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Gustavo Pérez Firmat, Alejandro de la Fuente, Duanel Díaz Infante, Jorge I. Domínguez, Jorge Luis Arcos, Jorge Ferrer and Antonio José Ponte, were in the catalog.

In an interview on February 21st with the digital portal Cubaencuentro, Víctor questioned about whether he would write his memoirs someday, answered: "I don't see myself writing my memoirs. I would feel, to put it with another Cubanism, that I am rummaging around. And now, when the entire world seems to be drifting, I don't want to have to choose between populism and esotericism, because I don't know which I would choose. Facing the kind of apocalypse that is looming, perhaps the best thing would be to avoid what Lot's wife did, and not look back".