Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Gastón Baquero Papers
Date(s)
- 1956-1999 (Creation)
Extent
34 Boxes
Name of creator
Biographical history
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.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The collection consists of documents, books and other materials written and collected by Cuban writer Gastón Baquero (1914-1997) during the last years of his life in Madrid, Spain. The collection includes correspondence, published and unpublished works by Baquero, clippings of newspaper articles by and about Baquero, research notes, photographs, clippings, scrapbooks, awards and memorabilia. Although the collection includes personal papers and documents, the bulk of materials relates to the subjects that occupied Baquero throughout his life, namely Cuban, Spanish and Latin American literature, history and politics.
System of arrangement
The Gastón Baquero Papers are organized into eight series.
Please see the Finding Aid/Inventory section of this guide for more detailed information.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
This collection is open for research.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Requests to publish or display materials from this collection require written permission from the rights owner. Please, contact chc@miami.edu for more information.
Preferred citation: Gastón Baquero Papers, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
Languages of the material
- Spanish
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Purchased from Gastón Baquero with funds donated by the AMIGOS of the Cuban Heritage Collection and other donors, 1996.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
The correspondence of author and journalist Eduardo Avilés Ramírez, sent to Gastón Baquero by Avilés Ramírez’s daughter Yolanda and originally part of this collection, has been added to the Eduardo Avilés Ramírez Collection, CHC0273.
Pedro Hernández Lovio Papers (CHC0488), Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
Other Information:
This collection processed with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Encoded by Isabel Ezquerra, Esperanza de Varona, and Marta Martínez 25 October, 2006. Retrospectively converted from HTML to EAD XML September, 2008 by Lyn MacCorkle and Kyle Rimkus based on a crosswalk by María Estorino. Revisions to the collection-level record made by Beata Bergen, June 2009, and Amanda Moreno, March 2014. Biographical note revised by Natalie Baur, April 2014. Folder-level container list converted from legacy PDF to Archon by Lyn MacCorkle and Sevika Taashma Singh and uploaded by Natalie Baur, June 2014. Updated by Juan A. Villanueva, January 2016. Updated by Rebeca Gonzalez, May 2021.