ALBA Cultural Prize Awarded to Cuban Writer Roberto Fernández Retamar

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 25 (acn) Cuban poet and essayist Roberto Fernández Retamar, President of Havana’s Casa de las Américas cultural institution, has been granted the 2008 Arts and Letters Prize given by ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas.

Also receiving the prize was Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sajinés, the Venezuelan Culture Minister Héctor Soto announced on Tuesday, reports the Prensa Latina news agency.

The ALBA Prize for Arts and Letters was created for the purpose of acknowledging and highlighting living creators who have continuously devoted their lives and work to enrich the continent’s cultural heritage.

We’re talking about “creators with original contributions in any genre, who have also supported cultural emancipation and decolonization”, stresses the jury’s report.

This is the second time that ALBA, by way of its Grand National ALBA Cultural Project, has granted this prize, consisting of a statuette and 75,000 dollars.

The winners will be presented with the prize during the next summit of this regional organization, to be held in Venezuela.

Awarded in the previous edition were centenarian Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and the almost nonagenarian Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti.


(Gana Fernández Retamar Premio cultural del ALBA)