Fernando Ortiz
Rome, May 22 (RHC)-- The outstanding intellectual Miguel Barnet received today in Italy the donation to the Cuban cultural institution Fernando Ortiz Foundation of a bureau used at the beginning of the 20th century by this wise man, one of Cuba's leading figures.
Barnet, president of that foundation, declared that the valuable desk, used by Ortiz when he was appointed consul in Genoa in 1902, was donated to the foundation by Italian Angelo Martinengo, who jealously kept it for three decades.
The Cuban poet and writer, who is visiting this European nation as a guest of honor at the 6th Timbalaye International Forum, said that the delivery took place within the framework of the program of that event, during a ceremony held at the headquarters of the non-governmental organization Music for Peace.
Angelo Martinengo, academic and businessman, has maintained close ties with Cuba since his first trip to the Caribbean island in 1989, and was one of the promoters of the approval by the authorities of Genoa to create a Don Fernando Ortiz Square in that city, a sign of the close ties between the peoples of both countries.
In a conference with the theme Memories of the desk of Don Fernando Ortiz, at the headquarters of the Genoese circle of the National Association of Italy-Cuba Friendship (Anaic), Barnet thanked that solidarity group for its efforts to rescue that piece, of high patrimonial value.
The also honorary president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac), said that in that bureau the Cuban researcher took the first steps in the creation of a monumental work, which led him to be considered as the third discoverer of that Antillean nation.
An eminent historian, ethnologist, anthropologist, jurist and archeologist, he developed his first investigations while he was carrying out his diplomatic duties in that consulate in Italy, the first of his country in Europe, with alternate functions in La Coruña, Spain and in Marseilles, France.
He wrote there, among other works, Los negros brujos: Apuntes para un estudio de etnología criminal, which highlights the extraordinary contribution of African peoples to the forging of the national identity, as well as the monograph Las simpatías de Italia por los mambises cubanos: Documento para la historia de la independencia (Italy's Sympathies for the Cuban Mambises: Document for the History of Independence).
The event was attended by the ambassador of the Caribbean country, Mirta Granda, as well as Marco Papacci, president of the Anaic, and also participated Ulises Mora and Irma Castillo, managers and promoters of Timbalaye. (Source:PL)
