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Baquero, Gastón, 1914-1997

  • Person

Distinguished Cuban poet, essayist and journalist Gastón Baquero was born in Banes, in the province of Oriente, in 1914. He completed a degree in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Havana, but decided early in his life to devote himself to journalism and literature.

He was a member, along with other renowned authors such as José Lezama Lima and Virgilio Piñera, of the group of intellectuals that took its name from the review Orígenes, an emblem of Cuban culture in the 1940s. He collaborated in other literary journals such as Verbum, Espuela de plata andClavileño.

Baquero published his first book of poems, Poemas, in 1942, which soon won him recognition and praise for the of poems like "Testamento del pez" and "Saúl sobre la espada." By the end of the 1940s decade and through the fifties he was respected as an intellectual, having earned a reputation both for his poetry and for his influential column “Panorama” which appeared regularly at El Diario de la Marina, of which he became editor.

His ideological disagreement with the government of Fidel Castro was immediate, and he left the country in 1959 as an exile. His work was obliterated from all records of Cuban literature including university curricula. At his new place of residence in Madrid, Spain he lived in almost total anonymity for years in spite of the admiration of many Spanish authors for his work.

In Spain, Baquero worked at Instituto de Cultura Hispánica and Radio Exterior de España, wrote articles regularly for several publications, primarily Mundo Hispánico, and taught at the School of Journalism. He published Poemas escritos en Españain 1960, a collection of essays on Latin American authors in 1961, and one of his most highly praised works, Memorial de un testigo, in 1966. In 1984 a collection of his works was compiled and published under the title Magias e invenciones.

In 1988 Baquero was nominated for the prestigious Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras. A collection of his essays in two volumes,Indios, blancos y negros en el caldero de America, was published in 1991 and Autoantología comentadain 1992. He became a finalist to the 1992 Premio Nacional de Literatura in poetry for Poemas invisibles, and was nominated for other important awards such as the Reina Sofía. In 1993 the Fray Luis de León Poetry Chair of the University of Salamanca celebrated a week-long conference in honor of his poetic works. Other tributes included the inclusion of two volumes of his work in the Obras maestras collection of Fundación Central Hispano.

Not until 1994, however, was his work recognized in his native Cuba, when a conference about his poetry was held at the University of Havana for the first time since he left the country. Baquero died in Madrid on May 15, 1997.

Balseiro, José Agustín, 1900-1991

  • Person

José Agustín Balseiro was born in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, on August 23, 1900. His father was Puerto Rican composer Rafael Balseiro. José Balseiro studied law and taught at the University of Puerto Rico. He left to Madrid to study and write poetry and literature. The Spanish Royal Academy honored him for his novel El Vigia (The Watchtower) in 1925.

In 1930 Balseiro was hired at the University of Illinois as a Professor of Hispanic Literature, where he eventually became the dean of the Romance Languages department. In 1938, Balseiro was the official delegate from the United States to the First International Congress on the Teaching of Ibero-American Literature held in Mexico.

Balseiro settled at the University of Miami as a Professor of Hispanic Literature in 1946. From 1955 to 1957, Balseiro served as President of the International Institute of Ibero-American Literature. He resigned his position at the University of Miami to teach as professor of Hispanic Studies the University of Arizona in 1967, but returned to the University of Miami in 1974 as a consultant to the University of Miami Libraries in Hispanic literature. The University of Miami created in his honor the José Balseiro Prize for Hispanic American Studies, a prize awarded annually to the best essay on Spanish-American studies written by a graduate student. Also upon his arrival to Miami, he was awarded the Encomienda de la Orden de Isabel la Catolica (Commander of the Order of Queen Isabella the Catholic of Castille), conferred by Spain to scholars, writers, and statesmen who distinguish themselves in the field of Hispanic Culture.

Throughout his life, Balseiro wrote a dozen critically acclaimed novels and multiple collections of critical essays, poetry and short stories. Balseiro was honored on a number of occasions, which include being assigned a Commander of the Order of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, being awarded a Diploma of Honor from the Mexican Academy of Letters, and the abovementioned Encomienda de la Orden de Isabel la Catolica. He was a member of a number of organizations including the Spanish Royal Academy, the Colombian Academy of Letters, the Sarmiento Institute of Sociology and History of Argentina, the Academy of the Spanish Language in the U.S.A., the Consultative Committee of the U.S.A. National Commission for UNESCO, and the Academia Jerezana de San Fernando. He also co-founded the Puerto Rican Academy of Letters, based in San Juan.

He retired in 1978 to Santurce, Puerto Rico. In 1984 he was named as a candidate for the Spanish Ministry of Culture's Miguel de Cervantes Prize. Balseiro passed away in Puerto Rico on January 13, 1991.

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