José Rafael Ramos Trujillo

José Rafael Ramos Trujillo (1903-1995)

He was born in Güines on April 1, 1903. He was a self-taught man, because his childhood and youth, together with six brothers, went by during the first years of the Republic, very difficult for many like him, that would have wished to obtain a formal higher education.

Since a very young age he stood out for his fondness in writing, especially in the journalistic genre and for his great love, always shown in his writings, for the land where he was born. He also wrote poetry, especially décima (poetic composition of ten verses of eight syllables each), acrostics and had a special ability in making riddles and puzzles in verses, with which he contributed in publications in Havana. In journalism, besides writing in local newspapers, he founded El Republicano (The Republican) with political leaning and he published Anuario Navidad (Christmas Yearly Book).

He married very young to Güinera Haydée Suárez Rodríguez, and from this marriage, five children were born, lasting more than 65 years until his death on October 26, 1995.

Always worried with the political problems of his homeland, he went into exile with all his family at the beginning of the fateful Communist system, bringing with him all those preoccupations, all remembrances and all the love for his dear homeland. Notwithstanding all the difficulties in foreign lands, he continued his literary production, founding the monthly magazine La Voz de Güines (The Voice of Güines) and publishing his book of poems Cuba y mi valle (Cuba and my Valley), keeping in all of his writings besides his deep sense of love for Güines and Cuba, a constant criticism of the tyranny that oppressed his homeland and that unfortunately, he never saw liberated.

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