First Volume of Todo Retamar Collection Presented at Casa de las Américas

June 11, 2024

Between the poetics and magic of an exalted thinker, the presentation of the first volume of the Todo Retamar Collection took place today at the Havana institution Casa de las Américas.

On the eve of the 94th anniversary of his birth (June 9) and as beautiful as the verses of he who was president of that emblematic literary fortress, the gathering brought together notable personalities to evoke the memory of Roberto Fernández Retamar (1930-2019).

In exclusive statements to Prensa Latina, the president of Casa de las Américas, Abel Prieto, considered that bringing together all of Retamar's poetry in one volume today is an extraordinary gift and at the same time fulfills "a very important debt that this country had with that great poet and thinker: publishing his complete works."

In it, poetry, that synthesis of thought and emotion, that exceptional moment that is great poetry, in which the human being reaches another much more transcendent dimension, makes a counterpoint in Roberto's work with the man who reasons about the world in which he lives, capable of constructing a new perspective, he emphasized.

This poetry is self-help, that is, it helps you live, to understand life, he assured.

The intellectual shared with the public a beautiful text that he had dedicated to his friend on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

Narrator Laidi Fernández de Juan explained to Prensa Latina that the project was completed by Ediciones Bachiller, of the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, within the Colección Perfil Definitivo, the title of a book by her father.

His complete works had already been compiled between the years 2000 and 2018, then we discovered that there were many dispersed texts: journalistic pieces, interviews, letters, narratives—which is an unknown Retamar—and this first volume has turned out beautifully, both in content and in design, she highlighted.

The initial volume includes the translations of poems that Fernández Retamar made, something that had never been compiled following the poems, she noted.

Another added value—besides ensuring nothing is left out—is the illustration and design, she opined.

According to Fernández de Juan, each volume will have an actual profile photograph of Retamar, and as they progress, time will advance and, therefore, so will its protagonist, until returning in volume seven "the elderly gentleman that many people remember."

Regarding Retamar's work, the interviewee responded: my father was a great Cuban thinker, but above all a Latin Americanist, a follower of Martí, an anti-imperialist.

I believe he is one of the fundamental thinkers, not only of the Revolution, but of Cuba as a nation, the writer concluded.

The presentation of the first volume of Fernández Retamar's Complete Works was attended by the director of the Biblioteca Nacional, Omar Valiño, the director of the Center for Literary Research at Casa de las Américas, Jorge Fornet, and Yamil Díaz, a scholar of the poet's work.