He was born in July 16th, 1881 and died in April 10th, 1969. In 1883 his mother took him to Minorca (Balearic Islands), where he studied elementary school and graduated as Bachelor in 1895. Being a student he published a story in a Minorca newspaper. In 1895, when he began studying Laws in the University of Havana, he took part in the creation of the students’publishing El Eco de la Cátedra; he kept on studying in Barcelona and there he graduated as Licentiated in Laws. He graduated as Doctor in Laws (1901) in the University of Madrid and returned to Havana in 1902. From 1903 to 1905 she worked in the consular service of the Republic of Cuba. He studied criminology in Italy and made friendship with Cesare Lombroso and with Enrico Ferri. He collaborated in the former´s magazine Archivio di Antropologia Criminale, Psichiatria e Medicina Legale. In 1906 he was appointed prosecutor of the Havana Court of Justice. Next year he joined the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País (Economic Society of Friends of the Country) from which he became President. Professor by Opposition of the Faculty of Public Law of the University of Havana. In 1910 he attends as official delegate of Cuba to the First international Congress of Management Sciences, held in Brussels, Belgium. That very year he re-started publishing the Revista Bimestre Cubana, organ of the Economic Society. He remained as its director until 1959. He was among the initiators of the 1914 People University. With José María Chacón y Calvo he settled in 1924 the Society of Cuban Folklore, and that year he settled the Archivos del Folklore Cubano magazine, which he directed during its five years of being issued. He lived in Washington from 1931 to 1933 and became active against Gerardo Machado´s dictatorship, then ruling in Cuba. In 1936 he settled the Institución Hispanoamericana de Cultura from which he was its president until it dissapeared, and Ultra magazine, cultural publishing. In 1937 he created and was the President of the Society of Afro Cuban Studies. He arranged in 1941, in the Hispanocubana, the Alianza Cubana por un Mundo Libre, as organ of struggle against fascism. In 1942 he started a Seminar on Cuban Etnography in the University of Havana. The titles of: Honoris Causa Doctor in Humanities from the University of Columbia, in Etnography from the University of Cuzco, (Perú) and in Law in the University of Santa Clara were conferred to him. Besides the magazines he founded and directed, he collaborated in Cuba América, Cuba Contemporánea, Universidad de La Habana, Revista de Arqueología y Etnología, Azul y Rojo, Revista Científica Internacional, El Mundo Ilustrado, Derecho y Sociología, El Mundo, El Cubano Libre, El Fígaro, Remedios Ilustrado, Diario Español, Ilustración Cubana, El Comercio, Letras, Alma Cubana, La Discusión, Bohemia, El Triunfo, La Razón, Revista de Administración, Gráfico, La Reforma Social, El País, Revista de La Habana, La Revista, Heraldo de Cuba, La Nova Catalunya, Revista de Avance, Social, Polémica, Revista Tabaco, Minerva, Diario de la Marina, Islas, La Gaceta de Cuba, Casa de las Américas, Archivos Venezolanos de Folklore; Traducción (Tampa, Florida); El Diluvio (Barcelona); La Nueva Democracia (New York); The Hispanic American Historical Review (North Carolina, EE.UU.). Besides, member of the Academy of History of Cuba. He outstood as top researcher of Afro Cuban folklore, by publishing diverse and important titles. He wrote several books of Law and his works La filosofía penal de los espiritistas and Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azúcar were translated into Portuguese and English, respectively. He settled and directed for many long years the Office of the Historian of the Havana City.

He was born in July 16th, 1943 and died in December 7th, 1990. He studied elementary school in Holguín city, and, still a teenager he wrote novels such as Adiós mundo cruel and Qué dura es la vida. In 1962 he moved to Havana to study Planning in the University of Havana. About these years he began writing poetry. In 1963 he started working in the “José Martí� National Library and wrote his novel Celestino antes del alba, winner of a mention in the 1965 UNEAC Contest, and which definite version should be published in the 1980´s under the title of Cantando en el pozo. In that very contest he won mentions in novel and story with El mundo alucinante and Con los ojos cerrados, respectively. With the former he got the First Prize conferred by Le Monde to the best foreign novel published in France in 1968. Some time later he worked in the Cuban Institute of Book and finally in the UNEAC (National Association of Cuban Artists and Writers) where he worked as editor of Unión and La Gaceta de Cuba magazines. Besides he collaborated with Casa de las Américas, El Caimán Barbudo, Mensajes, Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, El Cuento (Mexico), among others. In 1980 he emigrated to the United States of America where he delivered classes and lectures in the Universities of Cornell, Columbia, Florida, Harvard and Yale. He joined the publishing staff of Linden Lane Magazine, Caribbean Review, Noticias de Arte and Unveiling Cuba magazines. In 1983 he settled the literary magazine Mariel, collaborated in Escandalar, El Gato Tuerto, Término, and got the Cintas and Guggenheim scholarships among others. He visited several European and Latin American countries in which he delivered lectures. From 1980 to 1983 he took part in the films: En sus propias palabras, La otra Cuba and Conducta impropia. In 1986 his play Persecución was premiered. His novel El portero, originally published in French in 1988, he was finalist on the Award of International Medicine. He killed himself in his apartment of New York where he has settled shortly after his arrival to the United States of America.

He was born in Santiago de Cuba in June 7th, 1882 and died in Havana in July 16th, 1955. He is one of the greatest of the Cuban Trova. He studied music with his sister América; and guitar with Pepe Sánchez. At the age of fourteen he began composing songs and boleros. About 1908 he directed a quarted composed by Adolfo Colombo (tenor) Claudio García (barítono) and Emilio Reinoso (mandolin); Villalón played the guitar. In 1900 he moved to Havana, where he kept on his trovador life. In 1906 he premiered his musical revué, El triunfo del bolero. He was professor of guitar. In 1907 he made several records singing Cuban songs. Several times he travelled to Mexico and to the United States of America. Together with Ignacio Piñeiro and Juan de la Cruz he settled the National Septept, in 1927. In 1951, the Centennial of the Cuban Flag commemorative medal, was conferred to him, on behalf of his musical work. Among his high quality songs and boleros protrude: “La palma�, “Yo reiré cuando tu llores�, “Penas y flores�, “Me da miedo quererte�, “Martí�, “La palma herida�, “Los muertos de esta tumba no están muertos�, “El ocaso�, “Boda negra�, “Con cuanto amor�. Besides, he composed, guarachas, guajiras and rumbas.

Composer and guitarist Tirso Díaz died, Founder from Cuarteto Nano (Nano Quartet) since 1912, in which he performed as guitarist for several years. He was born in Güira de Melena, in September 24th, 1895. During decades he worked accompanying singers and making trova compositions. Among other works he composed: “Ana�, “Eloísa�, “Como la vida�, “Solo oigo al corazón�, “Entre las palmeras�.