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The Cuban writer, essayist, poet, and educator Luis Álvarez Álvarez passed away on Sunday, May 31, in São Paulo, Brazil, a city he had been living in since 2023 after exiling himself from Cuba. He was 75 years old and was regarded as one of the most significant intellects in contemporary Cuban literature.
The literary magazine Árbol Invertido published an obituary in which it bid farewell to the intellectual "with gratitude, admiration, and sadness," defining him as "a teacher, an exceptional scholar, a deeply-rooted Martian, a Cuban true to culture, and a friend."
Born in Camagüey in 1951 (some sources state 1950), he earned a Doctorate in Philological Sciences and a Doctorate in Sciences from the University of Havana, dedicating his academic life to the study of José Martí, Nicolás Guillén, Emilio Ballagas, neobaroque literature, and the cultural history of Cuba, among other topics.
In 2017, he received the National Literature Award, along with other significant awards from the Cuban cultural system, such as the National Award for Cultural Research. These recognitions stand in stark contrast to his later break with the official institutions of the regime.
The poet and essayist Caridad Atencio emphasized the significance of his legacy by stating that "Luis Álvarez's cultured nature, along with his special knowledge of classical antiquity and great literature, has allowed for the existence of a solid body of contributions to Marti's bibliography."
His exile in Brazil was not an economic decision. In an interview granted in 2024 to Árbol Invertido, conducted by Mario Luis Reyes, he explained it with painful clarity: "No, we did not emigrate, we were exiled in the midst of horror and disgust."
In that same interview, he elaborated on the reasons for his departure: "We left Cuba at all costs, due to the impossibility of living in horror, in the climate of hate, dehumanization, and terror in which Castroism has plunged our country," recalls Árbol Invertido.
Before leaving, he had resigned from the government-affiliated Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), an organization that, in his own words, had become unbearable for him to belong to. His exile is part of a broader wave of Cuban intellectuals and artists who left the island following the social outbreak on July 11, 2021.
Despite the exile, he never abandoned his faith in Cuban cultural unity: "Cuba is one. Unique. The fratricidal and criminal silence will pass. There is only one culture of ours. Cuba will be whole in its poetic night and its invisible gardens."
In Brazil, he continued his intellectual work alongside his lifelong partner and collaborator, Olga García Yero, with whom he published the essay Culture, Homeland, and Freedom in Martí (Ediciones Deslinde) in 2024. About her, he had said in 2018: "I cannot imagine working without her, nor can I imagine life, of course, without her. That simply does not exist."
The journalist and writer Yanetsy León González, one of his students, bid him farewell from Camagüey in an emotional message on Facebook in which she recalled that "Luis was admired and feared," and evoked one of his most revealing phrases: "An artist who does not confront themselves, who does not self-evaluate, will not truly contribute much to culture."
In the Inverted Tree Delimitation Questionnaire, when asked to complete the sentence "My true homeland is...", he answered without hesitation: "My true homeland is Camagüey." When questioned about his greatest fear, he made a definitive confession: "Losing my clarity." León González concluded his farewell with those same coordinates: "From your true homeland, Camagüey, safe travels, professor." Deepest condolences to his loved ones
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