Nicolas Guillen

His first poems began to appear in the 1920s, but it was not until 1930 (in Motivos de Son) that his characteristic voice emerged: Africanist, socially realistic and with a radical critique of Cuban and Caribbean society. In 1936 Guillen travelled to Spain to support the Republican cause and in 1937 he joined the Cuban Communist Party. When the Cuban revolution came, he embraced it whole heartedly and accepted posts in the post-revolutionary government. He died in 1987.