On October 18, 1901, a group of Cuban intellectuals brought to life an idea that seemed destined to endure. In a small room inside the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, with no books, no shelves, and no librarian, Domingo Figarola Caneda took office as its first director. An encyclopedist, bibliographer, and journalist, he had lost his only son in the struggle for Cuba\u2019s liberation.<\/p>\n
That gesture, almost symbolic amid the occupying government\u2019s official indifference, marked the birth of the institution now known as the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed National Library of Cuba. Military Order No. 234 authorized its establishment, but it was the determination and cultural commitment of those who championed the project that gave it real meaning. According to researchers, founding the National Library was an anti-annexationist act carried out during the US intervention, an effort to affirm national identity in the face of external pressure.<\/p>\n
Figarola Caneda did more than assume the post. He donated the first books from his personal collection, and that initial contribution became the foundation of a heritage that grew through donations, exchanges, and purchases from book collectors. The following year, the Library moved to the Maestranza de Artiller\u00eda, where its holdings found a more suitable home. In 1909, the Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional<\/strong> was launched, thanks to the donation of a small printing press by Pilar Arazosa de Muller. Over time, the publication would become one of the country\u2019s oldest, second only to Bohemia<\/strong>, and its pages would feature contributions from leading figures in Cuban intellectual life.<\/p>\n The connection with Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed did not come immediately. In 1949, at Fernando Ortiz\u2019s initiative, it was agreed that the building to be constructed in the years ahead would bear Mart\u00ed\u2019s name. Ortiz\u2019s proposal reflected a deep conviction: the National Library should be named after the man who had made culture and freedom inseparable causes. The monumental 17-story building was inaugurated on February 21, 1958, facing Plaza de la Revoluci\u00f3n. On that occasion, Fernando Ortiz delivered a statement that captures the institution\u2019s spirit: \u201cLet us hope today that this Mart\u00ed Library building will be a new Castillo de la Fuerza, from which the Cuban nation can defend its civilization, its Republic, and its freedom against enemies of every kind.\u201d The building\u2019s architecture, featuring stained-glass windows by French master glassmaker Auguste Labouret and a dome twelve meters in diameter, makes the Library one of Cuba\u2019s architectural gems of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n Its history is inextricably linked to the development of Cuban culture throughout the twentieth century. From its founding to the present day, no major period or figure in Cuban intellectual life has remained untouched by its history. Figures such as Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, the leading advocate of the movement that secured the construction of the new building, and Fernando Ortiz himself illustrate the sense of responsibility with which Cuban intellectuals embraced the institution\u2019s development as their own undertaking.<\/p>\n Its halls have welcomed distinguished directors, including Mar\u00eda Teresa Freyre de Andrade, Cintio Vitier, Ren\u00e9e M\u00e9ndez Capote, Juan P\u00e9rez de la Riva, Julio Le Riverend, Eliades Acosta, and Eduardo Torres-Cuevas, among others. Each left a mark on an institution that, in the words of critic and essayist Omar Vali\u00f1o Cedr\u00e9, its current director, \u201c(…) steadfastly upholds the highest values of what this country has built over the centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n The Library\u2019s holdings are exceptional in both scale and scope. More than four million items\u2014including books, magazines, newspapers, documents, maps, and images\u2014make up its collections, with materials dating from the fifteenth century to the present. Its holdings include Cuban and foreign prints; documents and books associated with Domingo del Monte, Zenea, and Juli\u00e1n del Casal; rare and valuable facsimiles; clandestine publications; music; materials on ethnology and folklore; sound recordings; manuscripts; and maps. The Cuban Collection encompasses everything published in the Caribbean nation, or about the country and its people, anywhere in the world, in any period or language, as well as works by Cuban authors published abroad. Its bibliography on Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed is considered the most comprehensive of its kind, and in 2005 this collection received UNESCO\u2019s Memory of the World recognition. In 2018, the Library acquired the valuable collection of manuscripts, letters, and photographs belonging to poet Dulce Mar\u00eda Loynaz, which it now safeguards and preserves.<\/p>\n The Library\u2019s reading rooms and specialized spaces reflect this wealth. The Antonio Bachiller y Morales Cuban Collection Room, the Wifredo Lam Art Room, the Mart\u00ed Collection Room, the Ethnology and Folklore Room, the Photographic Archive, the Map Room, and the Le\u00f3n-Murguecia Music Room are among the facilities that give researchers and readers access to a body of knowledge that helps define Cuban identity. The building was declared a National Monument on June 30, 2021. Its excellent functional and bioclimatic design incorporates reading rooms intended to benefit from natural light and ventilation. The designation, granted by the National Monuments Commission of the National Council for Cultural Heritage, recognized the historical, artistic, environmental, and social value of a building that forms part of the country\u2019s political and administrative center and stands as one of the most significant public spaces for Cubans.<\/p>\n The National Library\u2019s history also encompasses periods of profound transformation. Following the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, the institution assumed a leading role in the nationwide campaign to promote reading. Mar\u00eda Teresa Freyre de Andrade, its director at the time, developed policies to address the growing demand for information in a country where thousands of professionals had emigrated. Researcher Tom\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Robaina, who witnessed that period, recalled the creation of science and technology reading rooms and specialized centers to advise nationalized enterprises. In 1985, the Library became the coordinating institution for the National Public Library System. Its work proved crucial in keeping the country\u2019s more than 300 libraries open during the Special Period. In 2001, it received the F\u00e9lix Varela Order.<\/p>\n As another anniversary of its founding is marked, the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed National Library endures as a symbol of Cuba\u2019s determination to preserve its collective memory and as a place where culture is explored, reflected upon, and shared. Ultimately, it is a castle of knowledge that safeguards the memory of a nation and projects it into the future.<\/p>\n Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez<\/p>\n Photo: Ecured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As another anniversary of its founding is marked, the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed National Library endures as a symbol of Cuba\u2019s determination to preserve its collective memory and as a place where culture is explored, reflected upon, and shared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1039],"ppma_author":[14],"class_list":["post-5399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-specials","tag-jose-marti-national-library-of-cuba"],"authors":[{"term_id":14,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"lazaro-hernandez-rey","display_name":"L\u00e1zaro Hern\u00e1ndez Rey","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5402,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions\/5402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5399"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}