Marinello, Juan (1898–1977)
Marinello, Juan (1898–1977)
Juan Marinello (b. 2 November 1898; d. 27 March 1977), Cuban poet and essayist. Marinello was born in Jicotea in Las Villas Province and received degrees in public and civil law from the University of Havana, where he was an outstanding student, receiving a scholarship for a year at Madrid's Central University (1921–1922). He was politically active from his student days, organizing and taking part in student protests and groups. He was among the founders of the Hispano-Cuban Culture Institution (1926) and the publication Revista de avance (1927). He was imprisoned repeatedly for his political activities, especially during the regimes of Cuban presidents Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista. A lifelong dedicated Communist and political activist, he embraced the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and in turn was wholeheartedly supported and promoted by the Castro regime until his death. Marinello became president of the University of Havana in 1962 and Cuban ambassador to UNESCO in 1963; he was elected by the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party to help draft the constitution of the Cuban socialist state. He also received such international honors as the Lenin Medal (1970) and was a part of the executive council of UNESCO in 1974. Although Marinello cultivated poetry in his youth, he is mostly known for his essays and literary criticism. He compiled several anthologies on Cuban literary giant José Martí, whose prose deeply influenced him. His best-known works are the essays Españolidad literaria de José Martí (1942), Creación y revolución (1973), and Escritos sociales (1980).
See alsoCuba: Cuba Since 1959; Cuba, Political Parties: Communist Party.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
María Luisa Antuña, Bibliografía de Juan Marinello (1975); "Cuba, les étapes d'une liberation: hommage a Juan Marinello et Noël Saloman," Actes du Colloque International des 22, 23 et 24 Novembre 1978 (Toulouse, 1979).
Additional Bibliography
Gutiérrez Coto, Amauri Francisco. Polémica literaria entre Gastón Baquero y Juan Marinello (1944). Sevilla: Espuela de Plata, 2005.
López Lemus, Virgilio. Juan Marinello, la palabra trascen-dente. La Habana, Cuba: Editora Política, 1998.
Roberto Valero