Casa de las Américas, an emblematic cultural institution of the Cuban Revolution, celebrates its 67th anniversary of fruitful work in the sociocultural integration of Latin America and the Caribbean and the promotion of the region's finest intellectuals and artists.
This April 28th, Casa de las Américas, as it is known in cultural circles, commemorates the anniversary of its founding in 1959, just four months after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. It was established by Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado, Heroine of the Moncada Barracks, who instilled in it the character it maintains to this day.
Casa de las Américas is a non-governmental cultural institution, affiliated with the Cuban Ministry of Culture, dedicated to developing and expanding sociocultural relations with the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the rest of the world through promotional activities, concerts, competitions, exhibitions, festivals, seminars, and publications.
The Revolutionary Government, through Law 299 of April 28, 1959, created Casa de las Américas, whose headquarters were inaugurated on July 4, 1959, in a ceremony presided over by the then Minister of Education, Armando Hart Dávalos, in the building of the former Casa Continental de la Cultura (Continental House of Culture).
Its first director was Haydée Santamaría, who served until her death in 1980. Subsequently, this prestigious institution was headed by the distinguished intellectuals Mariano Rodríguez Álvarez (painter) and Roberto Fernández Retamar (poet and essayist), the latter serving until his death in July 2019. In December of that year, the writer, poet, member of parliament, and former Minister of Culture of Cuba (for two terms), Abel Prieto Jiménez, assumed this important position. All were prominent Cuban and Latin American revolutionaries and intellectuals.
The House, as it is known, disseminates, researches, sponsors, awards, and publishes the work of writers and poets, visual artists, musicians, theater artists, and scholars of literature, arts, and social sciences from across the continent, fostering cultural integration. It is conceived as a space for encounter and dialogue among diverse perspectives, in an atmosphere of innovative ideas with a vision of a Greater Homeland.
When all Latin American governments, with the exception of Mexico, broke off relations with Cuba, the institution helped prevent the complete severing of cultural ties between the island and the rest of the continent. Casa de las Américas disseminated the work of the Revolution and facilitated visits to Cuba by many intellectuals who came into contact with its new reality.
It would be too extensive a task for a newspaper article to describe Casa de las Américas's work in its many facets, from literature, library science, theater, music, and visual arts to specialized publications, its international events, and the artists it brought to light.
In a brief summary, one would have to mention the Casa de las Américas Literary Prize, organized by the Center for Literary Research since 1967, and the journal Casa, founded in 1960 by Haydée Santamaría as the official publication of the institution of the same name, which is one of the longest-running periodicals of its kind in the Americas and in the Spanish-speaking world.
Other essential areas of La Casa include the promotion of theater, music, and the visual arts. In 1961, it organized the First Latin American Theater Festival to introduce the region's most representative playwrights to Cuba. The festival took on an international character starting with its fourth edition in 1964, and from then until 1987, Havana became the biennial venue for the International Theater Encounters. In 1964, through the efforts of Manuel Galich, La Casa's Theater Department was established, and the first issue of the journal Conjunto, specializing in contemporary Latin American and Caribbean theater, was published.
The Visual Arts Department was created in 1961. Its work facilitated closer ties between Latin American and Caribbean artists and fostered the recognition and promotion of both artists and the most contemporary and innovative expressions of the visual arts, both within and beyond Cuba's borders. Casa de las Américas houses the Haydée Santamaría Art of Our America Collection, a visual heritage of over 10,000 works, some of which are on permanent display in the main building's halls, as well as in the Haydée Santamaría and Mariano galleries. Renowned visual artists such as Mariano Rodríguez and Lesbia Vent Dumois have directed this department.
The Casa de las Américas Music Department was established in 1965 with the aim of disseminating and stimulating Latin American and Caribbean musical thought and creation, from folk and popular to academic and experimental. The presence of important performers, composers, and researchers at its headquarters has been a memorable moment in Casa de las Américas' history.
The promotion of knowledge and scientific research is embodied in the Casa de las Américas Musicology Prize, founded in 1979 to encourage works that contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the music and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean, and which have given rise to its publishing collection. Since 1999, the prize has been accompanied by the International Colloquium on Musicology, which promotes the development of diverse fields of knowledge within contemporary musicology.
Casa de las Américas established the Center for Caribbean Studies (CEC) in 1979, when it first included Caribbean writers in its Literary Prize.