Roberto Fernández Retamar (9 June 1930 – 20 July 2019, Havana) was a Cuban poet, essayist, literary critic and President of the Casa de las Américas. In his role as President of the organization, Fernández also served on the Council of State of Cuba. An early close confidant of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, he was a central figure in Cuba from the 1959 Revolution until his death in 2019. Fernández also wrote over a dozen major collections of verse and founded the Casa de las Americas cultural magazine. Professor Joao Cesar Castro de Rocha, at the University of Manchester has described Retamar as "one of the most distinguished Latin American intellectuals of the twentieth century." In 1989, he was awarded the National Prize for Literature, Cuba's national literary award and most important award of its type. On Caliban Responding to the arielismo of Jose Enrique Rodo, who used the Shakespeare created character Caliban as a metaphor for Latin American civilisation, Retamar in 1971 influentially set up instead Caliban as a symbol of the Cuban people, stating that: "Our symbol is not Ariel, as Rodó thought, but Caliban….I know no other metaphor more expressive of our cultural situation, of our reality". Works Poetry Elegía como un himno, Havana, 1950 Patrias. 1949-1951, Havana, 1952 Alabanzas, conversaciones. 1951-1955, Mexico, 1955 Vuelta de la antigua esperanza, Havana, 1959 En su lugar, la poesía, Havana, 1959 Con las mismas manos. 1949-1962, Havana, 1962 Historia antigua, Havana, 1964 Poesía reunida. 1948-1965, Havana, 1966 Buena suerte viviendo, Mexico, 1967 Que veremos arder, havana, 1970. Published in Spain with the title Algo semejante a los monstruos antediluvianos A quien pueda interesar (Poesía 1958-1970), Mexico Cuaderno paralelo, Havana, 1973 Circunstancia de poesía, Buenos Aires, 1974 Revolución nuestra, amor nuestro, Havana, 1976 Palabra de mi pueblo. Poesía 1949-1979, Havana, 1980 Circunstancia y Juana, México, 1980 (consta de Circunstancia de poesía y Juana y otros poemas personales) Juana y otros poemas personales, Managua, 1981 Poeta en La Habana, Barcelona, 1982 Hacia la nueva, Havana, 1989 Hemos construido una alegría olvidada. Poesías escogidas (1949-1988), Madrid, 1989 Mi hija mayor va a Buenos Aires, Havana, 1993 Algo semejante a los monstruos antediluvianos. Poesías escogidas 1949-1988, Havana, 1994 Las cosas del corazón, Havana, 1994 Una salva de porvenir, Matanzas, Cuba, 1995 Aquí, Caracas, 1995 Esta especie de poema. Antología poética, Puerto Rico, 1999 Versos, Havana, 1999. Felices los normales. Poesías escogidas 1994-1999, Mexico,