When was nicolas guillen born

He was an Afro Cuban poet, writer, journalist, and social activist. His father was assassinated by the Cuban government, and as Nicolas and his brothers and sister finished school in pre-revolutionary Cuba, they encountered the same racism Black Americans lived with before the s.

Guillen began writing about the social problems experienced by Blacks in the s. His first poems appeared in Camaguey Grafico in , followed by his first collection of poems, "Cerebro y Corazon" Brain and Heart.

During the same year, Guillen interviewed Langston Hughes in Havana, whom he deeply admired, and they became lifelong friends. In , he created an international stir with the publication of "Motivios de son," eight short poems inspired by the Son, a popular Afro-Cuban musical form, and the daily living conditions of Cuban Blacks.

Composed in Afro-Cuban vernacular, the collection separated itself from the Spanish literary canon and established Black culture as a legitimate focus of Cuban literature.

It was as if Guillen had touched on something that the people of Cuba could recognize as having been on the tips of their tongues waiting for Guillen to articulate. After his father's death he helped support his family by working as a typesetter.

In he returned to Havana and managed to complete one year of formal study at law school. During this period he became actively interested in writing through his association with the literary circles of the capital. In the late s he began writing for a special Sunday newspaper section—"Ideales de una Raza"—of the Diario de la Marina devoted to aspects of Black life.

It was in this Sunday supplement that he launched his literary career with the publication on April 20, , of Son Motifs. Although these poems explored a variety of urban situations among poor Blacks—the search for money, tension between Blacks and mulattoes, "passing"—they presented these themes from a festive, musical perspective. Although he continued to develop the themes and styles of his first book, the folkloric and picturesque elements were subordinated to capture more authentically the violence and cynicism of ghetto life.

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