Cuba’s Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, today imposed the Order of Félix Varela, First Class, on writer, researcher and professor Luisa Campuzano Cente, in a ceremony held at the Casa de las Américas.
The event, held in that center’s emblematic Che Guevara room, was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ines Maria Chapman, Casa President Abel Prieto, and attended by writers, artists, friends and co-workers of the laureate.
This constitutes the highest honor given to Cubans and foreigners, as well as cultural groups, in recognition of the extraordinary contributions made to the enduring values of Cuban and cosmopolitan culture.
In words of tribute, writer Jorge Forente, director of the Casa de las Americas Literary Research Center, noted a long list of years of work devoted to culture, research and teaching.
For her part, the graduate in classical literature and a doctorate in philology expressed the great honor that distinction bears with the name of Felix Varela for her, who is one of the Cubans who, despite their distance, loved and defended the island more than others.
He affirmed that he felt special for all that he had lived and known in all these years and for the possibility of being close to great Cuban artists and intellectuals such as Roberto Fernández Retamar, Alejo Carpentier, José Lizama Lima, Centio Vitere and Servando. Cabrera, among others.
Fornet noted the value of teaching Luisa Campuzano (Havana, June 1, 1943) as full professor of the Faculty of Arts and Letters and member of the Scientific Council of the University of Havana from 1977 until her retirement in 2000.
In addition, she has founded and directed the Women’s Studies Program at Casa de las Américas since 1994, where between 1987 and 1994 she was in charge of the Center for Literary Research and coordination of the Casa de las Américas Literary Prize.
Member of the Cuban Academy of Language, prominent Cuban thinker since 1998 and for 25 years she has been responsible for the magazine Revolución y Cultura and since 2008 she has joined the board of directors of the Alejo Carpentier Foundation.
She is the author of A Brief Book of Pre-Type Poetics (Art and Literature, 1980). Literary Ideas in Satyricon (Letras Cubanas, 1984, Critics’ Award); and Quirón or the Essay and Other Events (Letras Cubanas, 1988).
Other texts by him are Carpentier’s Then and Now (Litras Copanas, 1997); Havana Girls Have No Forgiveness from God (Unión, 2004, Critics’ Award); and Narciso and Eco. The Classical Tradition and Latin American Literature (La Bohemia, 2006).
She is the author of more than 100 introductions and articles and has been published in books and journals. In addition, she has been a professor and has taught postgraduate, master’s, and doctoral courses at universities in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and the United States.
Campuzano has lectured at more than 20 universities in Europe, Latin America, the United States and Canada, while participating as a speaker in more than a hundred national and international conferences, many as part of their organizing committees.
He was awarded the Cuban Culture Medal, the Excellence in National Education, the Jose Tay Medal, the Frank País Medal and the Carlos J. Finley, The Latinidad Award from the Latin Federation; As well as the Critics’ Award in 1985 and 2004.
(taken from Latin Press)
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