He was just over 30 years old when he made history. He was undoubtedly the most popular poet of his time. In the context of slavery and illiteracy, people learned his tenths and sang them at parties. Therefore, drinking from nature, extolling Syboneyism, he transcended...

Nowadays, the languages are different, and the muses are more modern, but the bard legacy remains. Year after year, for more than half a century, rhapsodists from many places gather in El Cornito, around "his rustic home," to honor him with verses on Cucalambeana Fiesta. The poet is Juan Cristóbal Nápoles Fajardo (El Cucalambé), the greatest bucolic poet of the 19th century in Cuba.

"HE GAVE US THE GIFT OF BEAUTY"

This year, the Fiesta Suprema del Campesinado Cubano has had the participation of several deserving winners of the Cucalambé Prize, names such as Ronel González, Herbert Toranzo, Jorge García Prieto, Pedro Péglez, and Odalys Leyva. The latter, head of the Writers' Branch of the Provincial Committee of Uneac, said on the occasion of the 195th anniversary of the birth of the author of Rumores del Hórmigo on 1 July: "El Cucalambé, with his transcendent and moving work, turned the décima in Cuba into a unifying element, as it was appreciated for the literary value he bestowed on it from our lands.

"It was a creative beacon. He settled in the collective memory. His work reflected the formation of the criollo (Cuban). The desire for freedom is reborn in his singing. The décima as a component of a national identity found in him a master who used the mountain as a slate, who painted with words the existence and gave with his chromaticism a singularity to the Cuban countryside. He gave us the gift of beauty".

For his part, Ronel González, who won the coveted prize for the third time, commented: "El Cucalambé has to be seen in his context. At that time, Latin America was looking for the defense of the natural American. In his poetry, Romanticism and Siboneyism are mixed. And we, in another era, are part of that phenomenon, but it is a different historical moment, with other means of expression. However, we are united by our commitment to our poetic homeland. We are the continuity of that discourse and a rupture, at the same time."

Jorge García Prieto, winner last year of the competition that bears the nickname of Rufina's love, said: "You have to see him as a trope in Cuban poetry. When you become a symbol, you beat death. But you have to ask yourself how many young poets read it and, at the same time, how many are excited about participating in this contest. The Cucalambé Prize is, in a way, an extension of his life. This enigmatic figure deserves to be studied more and his work re-edited. It is necessary. We are all children of El Cucalambé."