On July 10, 123 years ago, Nicolás Guillén, Cuba's national poet, was born in Camagüey. His work stands out for being a mirror of Cuban identity, for portraying us in body and, above all, in soul.

Although he was also a journalist, especially through Afro-Cuban poetry, Guillén showed his commitment to his national roots by writing poetry, where social and political commitment always emerged as part of his essence as a good Cuban.

A fervent defender of Black culture and mestizaje, he coined the term "Cuban color" to describe the island's racial and cultural mix, transculturation, and mestizaje, which the Cuban ethnologist and anthropologist Don Fernando Ortiz had already brilliantly described as a stew.

After the triumph of the Revolution, he served as president of UNEAC and Cuban ambassador to Brazil, always distinguished by his monumental works that were among his greatest achievements as a poet: Motivo de Son, Sóngoro Cosongo, Poemas Mulatos, Cantos para soldados, and Sones para turísticos. Many of his poems have been set to music by prestigious Cuban and foreign musicians, for their sonority, rhythm, and cadence were their hallmarks.

He died in Havana on July 16, 1989, but wherever a Cuban looks into the eyes of another from their deepest roots, wherever a deep laugh is heard, and also wherever a frown is furrowed in the face of injustice, there’s the deep, gravelly voice, rhythmic and coming from the heart of the people, from those who don't know how to compose verses.