Armando Álvarez Bravo
Armando Alvarez Bravo has born in Cuba in 1938. Poet, literary critic, essayist, narrator, professor, editor and journalist, he is a member of the Cuban Academy of Language, correspondent to the Spanish Royal Academy and North American Academy of the Spanish Language, as well as founder and ex-president to the PEN Club of Cuban Exile Writers. Author to over 40 books, he is considered one of Cuba's best poets. There was much censorship and social breakdown in Cuba after 1959. During this time, all sectors of creativity (be it literary, plastic arts, music and/or thought) were the subject of fierce censorship. It was in exile where Cuban artists found the opportunity to do the work they had envisioned, while also struggling to cope with a new way of life and culture- to which they had arrived without resources of any kind. It was not until the 1980's that plastic artistic creations begin to be recognized and developed as a way of dealing with many adverse factors. This fact coincides with the arrival in Miami of the poet and critic, Armando Alvarez Bravo, who begins to publish a Sunday column dedicated to Cuban and international art- a feat that contributes decisively to his popularity. In Miami, we now see the emergence of galleries and an intensification of activities that make up a space for the visual arts. Álvarez Bravo's reviews and critiques constituted a decisive contribution to the acquaintanceship of several generations of Cuban artists and his column was the only source of appreciation for these artists. In the pages of El arte cubano en el exilio are reviews carefully chosen by the author. They span the course of over two decades, where the lives of the artists are examined, as well as the essence and identity of their work. El arte cubano en el exilio secures the spirit, essence and values of Cuban art of an atrocious era.
