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The Dulce Maria Loynaz Cultural Center, as it has been known
since February 5, 2005, was the home of the famous Cuban
writer, has been reconverted into a place to use for literary
gatherings as previously held there by illustrious men and
women in centuries past.
Dulce Maria Loynaz, is one of the most relevant figures of
Cuban letters and her name now occupies one of the leading
places in Spanish American poetry, life president of the Cuban
Academy of Language. This ultimate homage in life she received
in the portal of her home, awarded by the Spanish embassy one
month before her final departure.
Not because of this event but because of her contribution to
ennoble the Spanish language, Dulce María was also an
ambassador of Spain in America; she also represented Cuba and
was a worthy representative of the Spanish culture.
A great part of her work was carried out in her home, where
she lived her last days and which was often a meeting place
for outstanding artists and writers of Cuba and the world.
The warm and friendly building, now site of the Cuban Academy
of Language, is a glorious representation of the eclectic
architecture of her time and forms part of the complex of
great mansions in the former aristocratic zone of Vedado, a
neighborhood in Havana.
The mansion also has a museum area, containing valuable
souvenirs of the historic and mystical memory and very dear
objects of the author of “Garden” (Jardín). It also contains
many precious objects that belonged to the outstanding Cuban
family. Also there are heirlooms and decorations received by
the poet during her fruitful life, among them the Cervantes
Award, the National Literature Award and the Order of Alfonso
X, El Sabio.
The number one collection of articles on Dulce María Loynaz’s
work is the work of Pedro Simón. The writer’s private archives
are very valuable, replete with a countless richness of
documents (books, booklets, magazines, newspapers…)
As a poet, she won without even noticing, the hardest of
awards. She gave great prestige to the Belle Lettres of the
hemisphere, an absolute master of the profession she
represented. More than once she gave real evidence that. One
example is the Journalist Prize she received in Spain in
1991for ‘The Queen’s last rosary,’ about Queen Isabel la
Catolica.
Almost at the end of her days, Dulce María Loynaz was lucid
and agile of mind, though fragile of health and almost blind.
She used to say: “it is terrible and too hard having to give
up reading and emotions. It is just like living in a well
without a bottom”. And added; “Now I understand the
Argentinean writer, Jorge Luis Borges! Not being able to see
is a curse for anyone, but much more so for a writer or
someone fond of reading.”
In 1987, she donated her personal library to the city of Pinar
del Río, in gratitude for the interest of numerous groups of
youngsters there in the work of the Loynaz family.
Today, the library now keeps all the furniture arranged as it
was in the poet’s home, it has unique examples that serve as
a reference to readers of the city and keeps secrets of a
linage that goes beyond the limits of time, bound for ever to
the Western most province of the island.
Dulce María Loynaz was born in Havana on December 10, 1902 and
died in her beloved city on April 27, 1997.
Her personal history is part of the island’s heritage. Dulce
María represented with her ceremonious and authentic image,
the last member of a prestigious Cuban family; that of General
of the Liberation Army, Enrique Loynaz del Castillo, a Cuban
hero, There were four Loynaz children: Flor, Enrique, Carlos
Manuel and Dulce María.
The beautiful mansion of the Loynaz family in Havana was
always a place that welcomed the Spanish writers who came to
Cuba: García Lorca, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Alberti, Luis Rosales
and so many others. Federico García Lorca exchanged
correspondence with Attorney Enrique who was also a poet all
through the ’20s. The mixture of decadence and extravagance
fascinated Federico who was a close friend of Flor and Carlos
Manuel. Lorca dedicated his drama The Public ( El Público) to
Carlos and to her sister Flor he left an original of Yerma.
Great things can be said about Dulce María Loynaz, but nothing
too high-flown or motley for someone who was so modest like
water and so transparent like her own poetry.
In one of the poems dedicated to her homeland, there are the
well known verses in which she requests a petition for
eternity: My island, fragrant island, island of flowers: have
me for ever, rock me for ever, pluck one by one all my
flights. And keep the last one for me, under a pile of sun
bleached sand. …on the shore of the gulf perennial birthplace
of hurricanes!
In her verses, she breathes love for all around her, Cuba and
Cubanism.
Dulce María Loynaz has not gone. She is in her work, which is
her true self. Dulce María is alive and remains there, close
to us all, in the waters, in the island, in simplicity, in
beauty, in all things loved, and above all in her home, with
her lovely garden planted with trees and plants creating an
exuberant tropical garden, today a part of Havana’s Cultural
Heritage. |
