Villa Verde, Cirilo

Villa Verde, Cirilo

 

Born Oct. 28, 1812, in San Diego, Cuba; died Oct. 23, 1894. Cuban writer, journalist, and political figure.

Villaverde published his first romantic short stories in 1837. Between 1838 and 1848 he wrote the articles “Everyday Affairs,” “Family of a Guajiro” and others. His novel Cecilia Vaides, or the Hill of the Angel (1882; Russian translation, 1963) is permeated by protest against slaveholding. It laid the foundations for Cuban national prose. In 1848, Villaverde was sentenced to death for his participation in a separatist conspiracy, and in 1849 he fled to the USA. In New York he published the journals Ellndependiente, La Verdad, and Espejo, in which he advocated the ideas of the struggle for independence.

REFERENCES

Mitjans, A. Historia de literatura cubana. Madrid [1918].
Bueno, S. Figuras cubanas. Havana, 1964.

V. S. STOLBOV