Miguel Barnet

Havana, Feb. 18 (RHC)-- Cuban novelist, poet, ethnographer, and expert on Afro-Cuban culture Miguel Barnet has been awarded the Honoris Causa, granted by the University of Havana.

University dean Miriam Nicado presented the distinguished intellectual with the high distinction.

Barnet serves as President of the Fernando Ortiz Foundation, which promotes and preserves the works of his mentor, who was a prominent anthropologist and scholar of Afro-Cuban culture.

He is also the Honorary President of the Association of Artists and Writers (UNEAC).

Barnet is best known for his Biografía de un cimarrón (1966; Biography of a Runaway Slave, also published as The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave), a trend-setting book that inaugurated and then became the standard for what was to be known as testimonio, or testimonial narrative, in Latin America.

Deputy dean of the University of Havana, Jose Antonio Baujin, termed Barnet’s literary works as impressive and profoundly anti-colonialism.

‘The Honory Degree is far more than a deserved recognition for someone who is already a champion of Cuban culture,’ he said.

A National Literature Prize laureate, Barnet was awarded also the Juan Rulfo International Short Story Prize in 2006 for his short story "Fátima o el Parque de la Fraternidad."

In 2012, World Literature Today published the English translation of his short story, titled "Fátima, Queen of the Night," and subsequently nominated it for the Pushcart Prize. He received the National Order of the Legion of Honour of France.

Miguel Barnet has been awarded Honorary Degrees also from the University of Merida in Mexico and the Higher Institute for the Arts in Cuba and received Cuba’s Alejo Carpentier Medal and the Félix Varela Order.