Life and work of Fina García Marruz evoked at the Havana Book Fair (+Photos)

In life, mom would not have liked any of this, maybe in death she would, who knows, Cuban musician José María Vitier said today, referring to the tribute rendered his mother Fina García Marruz.

Intellectuals, friends and relatives of the exalted Cuban poet met this Monday at the headquarters of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, in this capital, as part of the tribute dedicated to the centennial of her work at the 31st International Book Fair of Havana.

Her son highlighted the modesty that always distinguished the also essayist and writer, recognized for her outstanding role in the letters of Latin America.

The same humility was recurrent in the voices of the panel made up of essayists and writers Ivette Fuentes, Pedro Simón, Roberto Méndez and Josefina de Diego, who approached Fina’s life and work from different angles, always with admiration and respect.

Regarding the centennial of her birth, on April 28, Fuentes said that this should be a season of glory for that person who helped and was aware of everyone around her.

“Fina encompassed everything… she was capable of being in everything with that simplicity that characterized her,” said the PhD in Philological Sciences and a BA in Hispanic Language and Literature, who also enjoyed her friendship.

She also referred to how she was able to weave her literary works while taking care of her husband, children, grandchildren, friends in the midst of the most mundane and domestic chores. In his speech, the poet and essayist Roberto Méndez, he called attention to how some people, on occasions, saw Fina as the collaborator of her husband Cintio Vitier, one of the great Cuban writers. However, she was the owner of an important and recognized literary work.

He stated that the reason for that had to do with her own shyness, but he assured that beyond love, Cintio admired and respected Fina for her own work, from her first texts for Orígenes magazine.

He recalled that for the researcher and also a student of the life of José Martí, Fina’s poetry goes from the intimacy of the soul to the objectivity of the spirit, just as he wrote in the prologue of the book Ten Cuban Poets (Editions Orígenes 1948).

Méndez commented on the ability that she had to move her lyrics between the human and the divine, landing her pen on the most everyday and earthly, even though she sang to the extraordinary from her Christian faith, and simplicity.

The essayist Josefina de Diego Marruz, her niece, shared memories of her aunt with her sister Bella, her mother, in which there were no shortage of allusions to the imprint of the appearance of cinema and the role of music in their lives.

She signified how music was always present in her poetry and she remembered it singing pieces by the Mexican Agustín Lara with her mother, listening to Ernesto Lecuona, Bola de Nieve or Esther Borja, among other relevant Cuban musicians.