Within the framework of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Fernando Ortiz Foundation (FFO), the institution will commemorate next Wednesday, 25th February, at the San Gerónimo University College of Havana, the 60th anniversary of the publication of Biografía de un Cimarrón (1966), the masterwork of Cuban narrator, poet and ethnologist Miguel Barnet.

The Alfredo Guevara cinema hall of the Santo Domingo building of said centre will host the academic forum «Biografía de un Cimarrón (1966-2026): a work of cultural emancipation», an opportunity to delve into this classic of Cuban and universal literature, with 90 editions and translated into several languages.

During the event, in special collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, the Fernando Ortiz Chair of Anthropological Studies of the University of the Arts and the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana, academics, intellectuals, researchers and writers from Cuban and foreign institutions will be present, Lázaro Elizardo Castilla Pérez, vice president of the FFO, told the Cuban News Agency.

The researcher, poet and critic noted that the creator of the celebrated testimonial novel has contributed, through the construction of his characters, to revisiting the historical and sociocultural memory of Cuba; a work in which the author anticipates his concerns by giving voice to subjects historically and socioculturally silenced: maroons, immigrants, marginalised women, among others.

Barnet, with Cimarrón, is distinguished by having a literary, rhythmic style, which draws heavily on expressive Cuban identity and oral communication, and manages to turn life history into narrative work, he added.

Castilla Pérez assured that the writer returns the unarticulated biography in the form of narration, without having to resort to fanciful invention, which is why this work has had international significance.

Anthropologically speaking, he said, Miguel makes a specific and original contribution: he becomes — thanks to his connection with the thought of Fernando Ortiz — the creator of a foundational work, always with an eye on «the others», since his obsession was to tell us and record to tell others, and even give literary coherence to the vital incoherence of his informants, until finding a search for Cuban cultural identity throughout his work, perhaps his greatest concern.

For the expert — whose doctoral thesis focused precisely on Barnet’s work — in Biografía de un Cimarrón there is an underlying tendency to stitch together events from the perspective of class struggle, which is why it is important to reaffirm that there is a continuity of themes, motifs and episodes that mark the cultural memory of a nation.

Miguel Barnet constructed in this same sense a model of cultural resistance and ethical values that function as attributes of Cuban culture; this imparts an artistic and intellectual value — in the socio-cultural sphere — to the testimonial novel, explained Castilla Pérez.

What is distinctive in Esteban Montejo — the protagonist, a freed slave, the last maroon — lies in the way of narrating events: in the dialogue of the subaltern, majestic descriptions of nature, of the richness and diversity of animals and plants, religion, are perceived; black, Creole, maroon, mambí, worker and patriot validate the lineage of Cuban identity, its cultural resilience in the face of hegemonic power, concluded the prominent researcher.

During the prelude to the academic forum that will take place next Wednesday the 25th at San Gerónimo with the presence of experts from Mexico, Chile and Spain, there will be a screening of an audiovisual on the three decades of the FFO, and recognitions will be awarded to institutions and organisations that have had a working relationship with the prominent centre that bears the name of the so-called «third discoverer of Cuba.»