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Rome, May 20 (RHC)-- The death of Italian writer and professor Alessandra Riccio is a great loss for the Left in this country and in particular for the movement of solidarity with Cuba, a statement said Saturday.

A note published by the National Association of Italy-Cuba Friendship -Anaic-, expresses condolences to family and friends for the death, last May 18, of the person who was always at the side of that organization, supporting in every task in favor of our country, according to its president, Marco Papacci, who said on Saturday.

For many years Riccio was a professor at the University of Naples, where she became recognized as one of the most important specialists in Spanish American Language and Literature in this country.

Journalist, translator, essayist, she was a close collaborator of the renowned journalist Gianni Miná, with whom she directed for ten years the progressive magazine Latinoamérica, and between 1987 and 1993 she was correspondent in Havana of the newspaper L'Unità, linked to the Italian Communist Party.

He was a member of the jury of the Casa de las Americas, Italo Calvino and Julio Cortázar awards in 1992, 2001 and 2010, respectively, and taught Italian culture courses at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Havana. In December 2000, he received in that Caribbean country the Distinction for National Culture.

Her book Cuentos de Cuba, published in 2011, reflects in 18 short stories the reality of that nation to which she has always been closely linked, as a defender of her Revolution and fighter against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed against that people by the United States.

She translated works by Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara, Cuban writers Alejo Carpentier and Lisandro Otero, as well as wrote an essay about the writer and poetess of the Antillean country, Dulce María Loynaz, among other works.

"We are sure that he will leave a great void in the world of culture and impartial information, we will always remember with special affection when with his sweet, smiling and calm air, he exposed the most severe and unassailable criticism against the U.S. policy towards Cuba", expresses the message from Anaic.