Ana Andrea Cairo Ballester (November 10, 1949 – April 3, 2019) was a
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
n writer,
research
Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...
er and professor of literature and
philology
Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
.
Early life and education
Ana Cairo Ballester was born in
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. Her father was a mechanic, and her mother was a housewife. Her early years were marked by the massive upheaval of the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
. As a young teenager in 1962, she traveled to
Baracoa
Baracoa, whose full original name is: ''Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Baracoa'' ("Our Lady of the Assumption of Baracoa"), is a municipality and city in Guantánamo Province near the eastern tip of Cuba. It was visited by Admiral Christopher ...
to work harvesting coffee, but her work was interrupted by the
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...
. In 1964, she began high school at the newly founded Raúl Cepero Bonilla Special Pre-University Institute, where she first became interested in the humanities. In 1967 she enrolled at the
University of Havana
The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...
, where she received a doctorate in philology in 1985.
Career
Cairo was a longtime professor in the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the
University of Havana
The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...
, where she began teaching in 1973 after completing her undergraduate studies. She led the department's instruction on Cuban literature and taught multiple subjects, including an annual seminar on
Jose Martí
Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph.
Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods
* Jose ben Abin
*Jose ben Akabya
*Jose the Galilean
*Jose ben Halafta
* ...
. She was known as a deeply knowledgeable professor; intimidating despite her casual uniform; an old-school scholar who never used a typewriter, much less a computer. As her colleague Pedro Pablo Rodríguez wrote:
"With professorial wisdom—and not without a certain malice, I would say—Ana would open a book and ask unimaginable exam questions from it: calling on students to recount specific episodes from the fictional texts, attitudes of the characters, the human problems demonstrated in the stories. ... In truth, Ana taught her students how to read and how to think."
She was a prominent figure in the Cuban literary scene, serving as a member of the Cuban Academy of History, on the advisory board of the Fundación
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French ...
, and on the board of directors of the Fundación Fernando Ortiz. She was also a member of the Caribbean Studies Association and the Association of Historians of Latin America and the Caribbean, and she frequently traveled abroad to teach on Cuban literature and culture in such countries as Mexico,
Panama
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
, France, and Spain. She received the National Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities in 2015.
In 1975, Cairo received the July 26 Prize for the essay that would become her first book, ''El movimiento de Veteranos y Patriotas''. She went on to publish some 20 books, including several anthologies, as well as numerous essays in both Cuban and international periodicals. She created the weekly
Radio Havana Cuba
Radio Havana Cuba (, RHC) is the official government-run international broadcasting station of Cuba. It can be heard in many parts of the world, including the United States, on shortwave frequencies. Radio Havana Cuba, along with Radio Rebelde, C ...
show ''Contrapunteo'' and served on the editorial boards of various Cuban magazines, including ''Temas'', ''Universidad de La Habana'', ''Debates Americanos'', and ''Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí.''
Death and legacy
Cairo died in 2019 in Havana, at age 69.
In 2020, the 29th annual Cuban International Book Fair in Havana was dedicated in her honor.
Personal life
Cairo had one son, Carlos Enrique del Toro Cairo.
Selected works
* ''El movimiento de Veteranos y Patriotas'' (1976)
* ''El Grupo Minorista'' (1978)
* ''Historia de La Universidad de la Habana'' (co-authored, 1983)
* ''Teatro cubano'' (1987)
* ''La Revolución del 30 en la narrativa y el testimonio cubanos'' (1993)
* ''20 de mayo, ¿fecha gloriosa?'' (2002)
* ''Mella, 100 años'' (2003)
* ''Heredia: entre cubanos y españoles'' (2003)
* ''Bembé para cimarrones'' (2005)
* ''José Martí y la novela de la cultura cubana'' (2014)
* ''Letras. Cultura en Cuba'' (series editor)