Urbano Martinez Carmenate: National History Prize 2022

April 15, 2022

The Matanzas writer and researcher Urbano Martínez Carmenate was awarded the National History Prize 2022 for his extraordinary intellectual trajectory and human merits.

He had just been presented with the Alejo Carpentier Medal, by the hands of the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, during the commemorations for the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Union of Historians of Cuba.

Another distinguished award was obtaining the Literary Prize Foundation of the City of Matanzas 2021 with the essay Fray Candil: the devil's pen, a work that delves into the controversial and somewhat forgotten figure of Emilio Bobadilla, his biography, his work as narrator, poet and critic, as well as the prize for Scientific Excellence Juan Cristóbal Gundlach, awarded by the Territorial Delegation of CITMA in Matanzas, for his work in favor of national history.

His books, specialized in historical research or in the biography of notable personalities of Matanzas and universal culture, sell out immediately in bookstores.

A graduate in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Havana, among his numerous books stand out Domingo del Monte and his time, Milanés: the golden strings and Byrne: the verse of the Homeland, History of Matanzas (16th-18th centuries) Athens of Cuba: from myth to truth, The open bridges, Damp letters. The poetic city, Carpentier, the other novel, García Lorca and Cuba: all the waters, and Collecting in Matanzas from the private cabinet to the public museum.

He has obtained important cultural awards: Criticism Prizes, UNEAC Biography Prize, Annual Research Prize from the Ministry of Culture, Research Prize from the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, Reason for Being Prize and others. Corresponding member of the Academy of History of Cuba. Researcher at the Palacio de Junco museum. Decorated with the Distinction for National Culture.

But…as Urbano expresses it, this would be the synthetic way to approach his life and I don't wish to slip into those paths, because it's worth knowing that the success of his works lies in the search for details that frame the fact or figure in order to thus manage to write history strung together with a poetic, literary halo, and that's how the interview began.

"History must be well written so that people like it, explore anecdotes, flee from synthesis. You can't do analysis without data, statistics, dates, facts. History is not a mention of events, that's a chronology, but rather the exaltation of the intellect based on what the writer offers in his inquiry. It needs description, what you have to know how to balance those elements.

"I have always tried to provide the reader with prose that interests them, that possesses literary values and that's what I've defended. We don't have many biographers, because you have to search for data; months of reading newspapers and archives, of files, everything related to the chosen personality. I did it in the one dedicated to Lorca. I set the era, the ships, the transportation he used, the city atmosphere, perhaps I strayed from the topic, but that was what was most appreciated and when it was published in Granada the main biographer of the Spanish writer saw it first and was delighted, because I had crafted a poetic and at the same time meticulous prose of Federico's stay in Cuba."

If one adheres to the stereotype one has of the historian based on his books, these literary nuances are not usual nor are they integrated into what is read in many textbooks, therefore it is also worth for us to investigate details about his emergence; to go back to the childhood, youth and the first links of this acclaimed author, born on February 12, 1953.

"I come from simple families, from the countryside. My mother from the Varadero area and my father from the Lagunillas region. They separated and I went to live with my grandmother in the heart of the countryside. The décimas of my father Gregorio were applauded at the guateques and my grandmother Margarita was an extraordinary storyteller, any detail, with her voice and gestures, she knew how to give the tones and accent the emotional passages. From four years old to eleven that atmosphere enchanted me among little animals, planting flowers, picking fruit and reading a lot, whatever fell into my hands, because I was alone in those places. At ten years old I was reading Gorki. I learned about Greek mythology. My grandmother, in her own way, would recount radio novels to me and I began to write décimas and recite them."

From nature and from the spirit of his family he absorbed beauty and from rural solitude, an avidity for reading, which, in his view, contributed to expanding his imagination and poetic vocation. The best of literature was flourishing in households at that time; even the humblest could leaf through a book by Guillén, Carpentier, Salgari, Verne. The 1960s, in full boom the National Printing House of Cuba, with its editions of hundreds of thousands of texts.

Adolescence provokes a shift in his existential status…

"To continue studying I had to get a scholarship in Guanábana and I won a composition competition about Vietnam. I went on to study Veterinary Medicine in Havana, but when the practical work began, I couldn't continue, I felt that it didn't fit with that profession, I was in another world, at that time I won a prize at the technological level in a poetry competition about Che Guevara. I also wrote humorous poetry about the incidents that happened at school that were famous among the students. I practiced with stanzas, sonnets, the difficult décima plus some narrative."

When one observes Urbano Martínez closely, what one perceives at first glance is a serene man, the "museum researcher," with a soft rhythm in his speech and gait, with paused gestures and therefore, perhaps someone doesn't notice the intensity of his thinking and how much he must have acted in life.

"I went to Cárdenas and began to work as a teacher in La Calera where my father worked. I wasn't there long, I was already 19 years old and they came to find me when they found out I was writing. They appointed me Director of Literature of the Cárdenas region, at that time it also covered Máximo Gómez, Lagunillas, Martí, Varadero, the Camarioca area and other towns.

"I established relationships with writers, organized activities and participated in the program 'Literary Window,' on Ciudad Bandera Radio. In that space I was an announcer, with no previous experience, a scriptwriter along with Herminia Morales and we both stood in front of the microphone talking about books and authors. At that time they chose me along with three other colleagues to attend the National School of Culture Cadres with the right to enroll at the University of Havana in the career I wanted, in regular course for workers and the trips began."

A young man travels daily from Cárdenas to the capital and vice versa on a schedule between 12 in the afternoon and eleven at night. Interprovincial transportation in those years was abundant, but it is still a great effort and by today's standards even a feat, which reflects two of his virtues: willpower and perseverance, united with a high aspiration for improvement, without a doubt.

When he finishes, they place him as Director of Literature in Matanzas. He moved to this city on Tirry Street, across from the old Sabanilla station. A little house near the San Juan River, right next to where Agustín Acosta resided. Later he works as Advisor with the Papalote group and in 79 he opts for the position of researcher at the provincial Palacio de Junco Museum. He fulfilled an internationalist mission in the People's Republic of Angola, as an advisor to the Angolan Cultural Heritage Institute. At the end of the 80s he met the Castellanos family, they invited him to live in their home and when the couple passed away in their old age, he ended up settling in that house on América Street at the corner of Río.

It was in the museum institution where Urbano Martínez Carmenate changed genres, speaking from a literary standpoint, because he had already obtained prizes in the provincial Néstor Ulloa competition in short stories and children's literature. What was novel emerged when he delved into historical essays and the depths of the biographical universe of great figures.

"The demands of the museum are to investigate historical topics, and that's where my first book arose, dedicated to Bonifacio Byrne. I also took on tasks like The History of Matanzas, in the 16th and 18th centuries, I would have liked the 19th, but Raúl Ruiz was already developing it, and in the end I'm glad I did what was requested of me because it had great reception.

"And thus other types of books that were commissioned, like the one on Collecting in Matanzas. Another success. What I did impose on myself was achieving an approach to literature and I write the life of Milanés, Carilda, Domingo del Monte, Nicolás Heredia.

"It's not a novelistic style, where dialogues between characters are included and there's even dramatization of the event. That's not my signature. I do human biographies, with anecdotes and the due rigor."

Delving deeper into his personal tastes, I ask him if he considers some of his books rewritten or are they written with a different air…

"You ask me about the biographies of Byrne and Milanés. I did them first and I assessed that I should revisit their biographies with new data, with more experience in my prose. The essential elements don't change, but the enrichment with unknown details does, new letters and more profound assessments, plus the structure of the notebooks. The Milanés one had 32 chapters and now 16 and the Byrne one similar. So it can be said that I have published two biographies of both figures."

Which is your most beloved work?

"They say the latest ones are the most appreciated, but to tell the truth, of all of them the one that has given me the most satisfaction is the one dedicated to Domingo del Monte. There are critics who say it's my best work, even a friend told me I couldn't surpass it and I almost broke down in tears, thinking about how I could break that myth, but in truth it has received the greatest honors: Research Prize from the Ministry of Culture, from the Critics, from UNEAC, from the Academy of Sciences. It has three editions: one in Venezuela, the other two one in Matanzas and another in Havana. They speak with praise from Latin American and United States professors. Although I also really like those of Lorca, Byrne and Milanés."

My impression is that when you read his biographies, you subtly come to feel the gasps of anxiety of the characters. So I ask him. How did you dare to write the biography of Carilda Oliver Labra during her lifetime, because that's an atypical fact, here in Cuba it's not usual.

"Nor anywhere else. You always wait for the person to pass away. However, I was encouraged because she already had her work done, later she wrote very little. There was an incredible archive, the living testimony of people who knew her, siblings, childhood friends, colleagues, some have already died, I always thought it wasn't a finished book, that later I could incorporate other documents. I did well. It was the moment. She didn't agree with some parts and about 50 pages had to be removed. In the end it was published with her consent by Letras Cubanas editions. Union, with a print run of 10 thousand copies and as is known, it sold out. At that time they awarded her the National Literature Prize."

For the people of Matanzas it has been an invaluable book. It manages to reflect the intimate and external aspects of a woman, a paradigm of love and wisdom for many, two valuable virtues in a writer full of passion and controversial action, patriotic and from Matanzas until death.

There are books by Urbano that show his free will when choosing topics…

"Sometimes circumstances arise. The one about Lorca springs up because I meet the president of the García Lorca Foundation in 97 and when he comes to Matanzas he asks me to write about the stay of the Spanish poet in Cuba and I did it in record time. There were documentary references about his travels, relationships with the Loynaz, reviews, interviews from the press of that era and published research. In Varadero I recreated the hotels, the houses he visited and with a different language I achieved success with this beautiful notebook."

Projects in hand…

"I'm beginning the biography of the writer Félix Tanco Bosmeniel, a figure from the first half of the 19th century, of the Delmontino circle, with controversial behavior, who lived most of his life in Matanzas. He was founder of the antislavery novel, administrator of mail, a position that at that time was extremely important. He published in the newspaper La Aurora de Matanzas. He participated in famous debates. He was a daring character for the colony. He was involved in the Ladder Conspiracy. He had been born in Colombia and claimed by his sons he dies in the United States in 1871. Most of the sources I have in my possession. The Pandemic has prevented me from going to the archives in Havana, that's why it's been delayed."

Is Urbano still a solitary person, like that child who read to chase away voids? Do you feel happy?

"Although I have all possible voids filled, I remain alone much of the time, because of my own profession. I'm a person of few friends and some friendships have disappeared. I'm not one for visits. My work routine has changed, now with my age I have greater moderation in schedule, before dawn would surprise me. I like to walk through the city, especially the San Juan River area, to reach the Stadium, or the opposite, to move to the plaza de la Vigía via Medio Street or head towards San Luis Avenue.

"I don't feel happy with respect to my health, I sleep poorly. However, from an intellectual point of view, I don't complain. My books are published right away, which rewards the effort; most by various publishers; I've received prizes and even one of stories was launched, titled Still life with hat and I'm working on another one.

"The most ambitious is the great Encyclopedia and the dictionaries on literature, performing and visual arts, Matanzas journalism, which I keep in my archives and I add data to periodically. They are projects that I don't know if I'll finish, I hope so. I usually tell death to wait, that I still have stories to tell…"