Baquero, Gastón

Distinguished Cuban poet, essayist and journalist Gastón Baquero was born in Banes, in the old province of Oriente, on May 4 1916. 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. 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, Madrid, 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 España in 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. 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.