[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 51 (Wednesday, April 14, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E641-E642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  A TRIBUTE TO JUSTO RODRIGUEZ SANTOS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 14, 1999

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, a great poet, Dr. Justo Rodriguez 
Santos, recently passed away in New York.
  Dr. Rodriguez Santos was a man of extraordinary talent and 
sensitivity whose commitment to democracy and his fellow man will be 
enormously missed. Born in Santiago, Cuba in 1915, he received his 
doctorate in philosophy and literature from the University of Havana. 
His writings capture the human experience and demonstrate the triumph 
of the human spirit. Through his poetry and writings, he communicated 
his vision of the world with grace and flair. His wisdom and generous 
spirit will live on in the poems he left for us. He was a great Cuban 
who will always be remembered as a lover of freedom.
  I am privileged to personally know Mari R. Ichaso and Leon Ichaso, 
the very talented daughter and son of Dr. Rodriguez Santos. I send them 
and Dr. Rodriguez Santos' widow, Mrs. Antonia Ichaso Rodriguez, my 
sympathy and deep affection of this difficult time.
  Below is the obituary from the New York Times, dated April 13, 1999, 
that details further the life of this great Cuban poet.

           Justo Rodriguez Santos, 83, Expatriate Cuban Poet

                             (By Nick Ravo)

       New York.--Justo Rodriguez Santos, a Cuban poet who became 
     disenchanted with Fidel Castro in the 1960s, exiled himself 
     from his native land and became an advertising executive in 
     the United States, died on Wednesday at St. Luke's-Roosevelt 
     Hospital Center in Manhattan. He was 83.
       Rodriguez Santos was a minor member of Origenes, a 
     prominent group of writers and painters founded by the poet 
     Jose Lezema Lima in the 1930s and loosely linked to the 
     American poet Wallace Stevens. The name Origenes was a play 
     on words, meaning both origins and a church father; the 
     group's work was strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic 
     faith. Origenes was also the name the artists chose for an 
     influential literary magazine they published from 1944 to 
     1954.
       ``It was a very important journal in the history of Latin 
     American culture,'' said Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, a 
     professor of Hispanic and comparative literature at Yale 
     University.
       Rodriguez Santos was born in Santiago, Cuba, on Sept. 28, 
     1915, and moved to Havana at an early age. He earned a degree 
     at the University of La Salle in Havana and a doctorate in 
     philosophy and literature from the University of Havana. He 
     also worked in television and radio in Cuba.
       His books of poetry include ``Luz Cautiva'' (``Captive 
     Light,'' 1936), ``La Belleza Que el Cielo No Amortaja'' 
     (``The Beauty the Sky Will Not Shroud,'' 1950), ``El Diapason 
     del Ventisquero'' (``Echoes of a Whirlwind,'' 1976), Los 
     Naipes Conjurados y las Operas del Sueno'' (``The Conjured 
     Cards and the Operas of Dreams,'' 1979 and 1989).
       He also wrote a nonfiction account of the Cuban revolution, 
     ``The Moncada Epic: Poetry of History,'' in 1963.
       ``It was translated into several languages, and it was a 
     favorite of Mao's,'' said Rodriguez Santos' daughter, Mari 
     Rodriguez Ichaso of Manhattan.

[[Page E642]]

       After the Cuban revolution in 1959, Rodriguez Santos wanted 
     to stay in Cuba, although his wife and children left in 1963. 
     In 1967, though, after a disheatening trip to China, he asked 
     permission to emigrate.
       ``He was very in favor of democracy and felt betrayed by 
     what he felt were the excess of the revolution,'' Ms. 
     Rodriguez Ichaso said.
       Instead of receiving permission to leave, he was sent to a 
     work on a tobacco farm, his books were withdrawn from library 
     shelves and he was banned from the Cuban Writers Union.
       ``They converted him into a nonentity, a nonperson,'' Ms. 
     Rodriguez Ichaso said.
       A year later and ailing, Rodriguez Santos was permitted to 
     leave Cuba and settled in New York. In 1972, he was hired as 
     director of advertising for Goya Foods in Secaucus, NJ. He 
     retired from Goya in 1991.
       Besides his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Antonia 
     Ichaso Rodriguez, and a son, Leon Ichaso, of New York.

     

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