Nicolás Guillén

Using historiographical approaches, this chapter is devoted to Nicolás Guillén (1902–1989), the most famous Cuban poet of the twentieth century and one of the three or four greatest poets of Latin America in that century, and how his ideas can be used toward efforts to build a new Africa. Guillén is also recognized as the leader of the Negrismo movement, the Hispanic counterpart of Negritude. It must be understood, however, that by the same token, Guillén is a humanist and a universalist reflecting the culture, multi-culture, or civilization of the Caribbean, White or Black, beyond any “movement,” “style,” or “genre.” One of his best-known collections of poems, titled Songoro Cosongo, may be singled out as representative of his writings and personality. To quote a verse, “En esta tierra, mulata/de africano y espanol /(Santa Barbara de un lado,/ del otro lado Chango),” is a fusion of Yoruba and Hispanic languages and media. Incorporating onomatopoetic terms and syncretic creeds, it is also a manifestation of his political ideology which led him to become a revolutionary, many years before the Cuban Revolution of 1959. He joined the Communist Party in 1937, as a consequence of which he was barred from the United States. Nevertheless, he developed a close friendship with Langston Hughes, a frequent visitor to the island, who he called “my dearest friend.” In 1954, Guillén was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize and, in 1961, he began serving as President of the National Union of Cuban Writers. Not unlike the case of Ransome Kuti Fela, his father was assassinated by the government, which probably exacerbated his anti-establishment stance. His holistic achievements and universal spirit notwithstanding, he is not appreciated by everyone. When I approached a distinguished Cuban colleague (with a PhD), a professor of literature, he told me he had never heard of Nicolás Guillén.