CubaThe earliest Cuban children’s literature was related to education and dates from the
beginning of the nineteenth century; texts include catechisms, primers and other texts
which contained poetry and stories. Libro de lectura para niños (1846), by Manuel
Coatales, El librito de los cuentos y las conversaciones (1847) by Cirilo Villaverde, and
other writings by Eusebio Guiteras, José María de la Torre and Juan Bautista Sagarra
stand out, but their names are now largely forgotten.
As in other countries, Cuban children appropriated reading matter not originally
written for them, such as Miguel Teurbe Tolón’s Leyendas cubanas (1857), or the fables
of Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (1856) and Aurelia Castillo González (1879).
Altruistic people sponsored publications such as El álbum de los niños, El periquito, La
infancia, and La niñez, while Francisco Javier Balmaseda’s Fábulas morales was
reprinted more than fifteen times before the turn of the century.
The Cuban text par excellence, a benchmark which upset the prevailing ideas on
language intended for children, was La Edad de Oro, by José Martí, published in
instalments in a periodical in 1889.
Very few books for children were published in Cuba in the first half of the twentieth
century. Works by the poets Mariano Brull and Emilio Ballagas, the Romancero de la
Maestrilla by Renée Potts, Niña y el viento de mañana by Emma Pérez Téllez, El caballito
verde by Anita Arroyo and Antonio Ortega, and Los cuentos de Apolo by Hilda Perera
stand out. Cuentos de todas las noches (a collection of traditional stories made into
fables) by Emilio Bacardí Moreau, was published in 1950, and in the 1950s a young
journalist, Dora Alonso made her debut as a playwright.
The year 1959 was important not only for the social changes of the revolutionary
period that followed, but also for the impulse given to education and culture. Ample
resources were invested in children’s books and in 1962, a Spanish teacher Herminio
Almendros established the Editora Juvenil both to republish classics and stimulate
local talent. Characteristic of this period were Dora Alonso’s Las aventuras de Guille
(translated into many languages), Dos niños en la Cuba colonial, with which Renée
Mendez Capote initiated a type of book for children referring to national history with a
fluent, entertaining style; and Nuestro Martí, by Herminio Almendros, a biography of
Cuba’s national hero. Other writers who joined this movement include Onelio Jorge
Cardoso, a great story-teller, who has written some of his best stories for children:
Caballito Blanco, Negrita, and others.
Following the campaign against illiteracy, numerous public and school libraries were
established, and in the Juvenile Department of the National Library, the Department of
Literature and Stories for Children was founded, under the guidance of the experienced
librarian María Teresa Freyre de Andrade and poet Eliseo Diego. Here space was set
apart for ‘La hora de cuento’ [Time for Stories] and many young authors showed their
ability as raconteurs. Well-known figures in the promotion of children’s literature have
emerged from this seedbed, one being Alga Marina Elizagaray.
In 1967, Editora Juvenil closed, and since then practically all children’s books have
been published by its successor, Editorial Gente Nueva. Occasionally, other institutions
organise literary contests which give awards for children’s books, such as Casa de las
876 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN