Fina García Marruz
Fina García Marruz is a prominent Cuban poet born in Havana in 1923, who emerged as a significant figure in Cuban literature. Her poetic journey began at the age of thirteen when celebrated Spanish poet Juan José Jiménez recognized her talent. She pursued higher education at the University of Havana, earning a doctorate in social sciences, and was influenced by notable literary figures such as Cintio Vitier, who later became her husband, and José Lezama Lima. García Marruz was integral to the literary movement around the magazine Clavileño in the early 1940s, which aimed to enhance social awareness amidst the backdrop of a struggling republic.
Throughout her career, she published a collection of poems titled "Visitaciones" in 1970, but her work often faced challenges, particularly during the tense cultural climate of Fidel Castro's regime. After a period of literary obscurity, her reemergence in the 1980s allowed her to explore themes close to her heart, such as the arts, religion, and family. Eventually, García Marruz gained both national and international recognition, becoming a mentor and inspiration for a new generation of Cuban writers, reflecting her enduring impact on Cuban literary culture.
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Subject Terms
Fina García Marruz
Writer
- Born: April 28, 1923
- Birthplace: Havana, Cuba
- Died: May 17, 1927
Biography
Fina García Marruz was born in the center of Havana, Cuba, in 1923, to a physician and a pianist. She found her poetic vocation in 1936, when the celebrated Spanish poet Juan José Jiménez visited Cuba and praised the thirteen-year-old’s writing. Later, while studying at the University of Havana, where she received a doctorate in social sciences, García Marruz was also encouraged by the Cuban poet and intellectual, Cintio Vitier, who would become her husband and the father of her two sons, and by José Lezama Lima, another poet whom she admired. The three formed an artistic alliance that worked to invigorate Cuban artistic life.
García Marruz began publishing her work and edited the the literary journal Clavileño in 1942 and1943. She had help from a group of individuals who would subsequently form the nucleus of the literary movement surrounding the magazine Origenes. This group was dedicated to literature, and, in the wake of the failed Cuban Republic, to raising social consciousness. Ironically, perhaps, the Origenes group proved a rather insular one, removed from everyday Cuban life, but its profound spirituality nurtured García Marruz and her art.
García Marruz collection of poems, Visitacones was published in 1970, and, after many years out of the spotlight, she was once again brought to public notice. However, this recognition occurred at a time when the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro was in conflict with the country’s artistic community, and García Marruz was forced back into the obscurity of literary research. In the 1980’s she again resurfaced when some of her poetry and essays were published in anthologies. This appearance marked the beginning of a renaissance for García Murraz, now free to return to the prerevolutionary topics that most interested her: the arts, religion, family, and her homeland. Finally receiving both the national and international attention she deserved, García Murraz became the inspiration and mentor for a new generation of Cuban writers.