Aitana Alberti, daughter of the poet Rafael Alberti, has passed away in Havana

Aitana Alberti León, poet, writer, and cultural promoter, passed away on Tuesday, June 30, in Havana at the age of 84, as confirmed by Cuban state media and the Dulce María Loynaz Cultural Center, an institution where she worked for more than fifteen years.

She was the daughter of the Spanish poet Rafael Alberti and the writer María Teresa León, two central figures of the Generation of '27 who lived for decades in exile after the defeat of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1941, Aitana came into the world while her parents were traversing the path of exile: first France, then Argentina, and later Italy. In 1984, she settled permanently in Cuba, where she would spend the rest of her life.

In Havana, she named her home "Pleamar," in tribute to her father's first poetry collection, and turned it into a meeting place for artists and intellectuals.

For more than fifteen years, he was a key figure at the Dulce María Loynaz Cultural Center, where he founded and directed the space "Fe de vida: Imagen y palabra," a forum dedicated to promoting the work of poets from the Generation of '27 in Cuba.

He also presided over the Rafael Alberti Chair at the University of Havana, the Cultural Project South —which brings together 30 cities from Europe and America— and the International Poetry Festival of Havana, one of the most significant poetic events in Latin America.

Her literary work includes several poetry collections: Poemas de Aitana Alberti (1955), Pupila al viento (1998), Y de nuevo nacer (1999), and Amazona en la centella (2016).

In narrative, he left behind Inquilinos de la soledad (2006), a tribute to the exiles of the Spanish Civil War, and Cuentos persas (2018), as well as the memoir La arboleda compartida, in which he reflected on his life with his parents and dedicated pages to the Cuban writer Dulce María Loynaz.

His texts were translated into German, Polish, Russian, Romanian, and Italian.

In 2009, he presented the Rafael Alberti Award to the Cuban poetess Carilda Oliver Labra, and in 2011, he presided over the 16th International Poetry Festival of Havana, alongside poets Pablo Armando Fernández and Nancy Morejón.

Aitana Alberti represented one of the last documented direct links between the Spanish Generation of '27 and contemporary Cuban literary culture.

The Granma newspaper bid her farewell, stating that she "leaves an immense void in Cuban culture" and will be remembered as "an tireless advocate for poetry, memory, peace, and dialogue between peoples."