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Poetry 17
By 1937 Guillén had joined Cuba’s Communist Party.
That same year, he published two books of poetry. One dealt
with the Spanish Civil War; the other,
Cantos para soldados y
sones para turistas
(“Songs for Soldiers and
Sons
for
Tourists”), decried the increasing military influence in
Cuban society and the corrupting effects of unbridled tourism
on Cuban culture.
Guillén’s politics led Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista to
deny him reentry into the country after an overseas trip in
1953. The poet returned to the island in 1959, after revolution-
aries under the leadership of Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista
regime.
An indefatigable champion of the revolution, Guillén
founded the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists—known by
its Spanish acronym, UNEAC—in 1961, serving as its presi-
dent into the late 1980s. UNEAC was supposed to harmonize
the creative output of artists and intellectuals with a changing
(that is to say, socialist) Cuban society. But over the years crit-
ics would—for good reason—come to view the union as a gov-
ernment-dominated organization for muzzling writers and
artists who might oppose the Castro regime.
For his part, though, Guillén unapologetically celebrated
the achievements of the revolution, including the advances it
made in decreasing poverty and racism in, and bringing social
justice to, Cuba. That’s not to suggest that his post-revolution
poetry consisted entirely of political advocacy. For example, he
published a volume of love poems in 1964, and a humorous and
ironic
bestiary
,
El gran zoo
(“The Great Zoo”), in 1967.
In his old age, Guillén was asked which of his poems he