Cuba to Commemorate the Life and Work of Intellectual Armando Hart Dávalos

The event El elogio oportuno, held at the Fayad Jamís Bookstore in Havana’s Historic Center, will be dedicated tomorrow to the 95th anniversary of the birth of Cuban intellectual Armando Hart Dávalos (1930–2017).

The gathering, hosted by journalist and critic Fernando Rodríguez, will feature guests Héctor Hernández, a close collaborator of Hart Dávalos, deputy director general of the Office of the Marti Program and coordinator of the José Martí Project for International Solidarity, and Yasel Toledo, president of the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS), an organization that represents the country’s young artistic and literary vanguard.

According to a statement from the Cuban Book Institute, tenor Bernardo Lichilín will perform works by Cuban composers during the event. Following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Armando Hart Dávalos held key positions as Minister of Education and Minister of Culture, director of the Office of the Marti Program, and president of the José Martí Cultural Society.

He was also a member of the July 26 Movement and an active participant in the struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

El elogio oportuno aims to pay tribute to writers, books, historical events, and institutions that reach significant anniversaries.

The name of the event is inspired by a phrase written by José Martí in the newspaper Patria in April 1892: “Timely praise promotes merit, and the absence of timely praise discourages it.”

The event is organized by the Fayad Jamís Bookstore, the Roberto Fernández Retamar Marti Club, and the Culture and Social Sciences Sections of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country.