Rogelio Martínez Furé has died in Havana. Born in Matanzas (1937), he graduated from the University of Administrative and Diplomatic Law, but did not practice it.
In the early 1960s, he was the founder of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, specializing in the investigation of the African heritage in the national culture, together with Miguel Barnet, Leyda Oquendo and other outstanding intellectuals who passed through that institution. .
He was part of the literary group El Puente. In 1962 she founded the National Folkloric Ensemble of Cuba, aimed at collecting, preserving and promoting Afro-Cuban musical and dance traditions, a company that performed in several countries in Europe, Africa and Latin America.
National Prize for Cultural Research (2001), Dance (2002) and Literature (2015), he was the author of a prolific literary and investigative work, among which the titles African anonymous poetry, imaginary dialogues, African diwan. French-speaking poets, wisps of memory…
He was also an advisor and librettist for the National Folkloric Ensemble, a UNESCO expert and a member of the Technical Advisory Council of the Cuban Commission for UNESCO.
A sensible loss. A wise man and a full-fledged humanist has gone.
He leaves an immense legacy to cultural studies, traditional popular culture and Cuban culture as a whole.
Rest in peace.
