Figures from around the world mourn the poet’s farewell at 89 years of age. Setting aside the grief, they speak of gratitude and of his abiding presence. “Dear Roberto, thank you for leaving us your work, your lucidity, and commitment,” wrote Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez on his Twitter account.

“We are left with his ideas that inspire the path of free peoples who will keep his legacy of resistance alive,” said Evo Morales, president of Bolivia.

U.S. writer Margaret Randall commented: “Over the years, Retamar was always a beacon for us, a political and cultural reference, and a friend. We mourn his death and celebrate his life.”

“Retamar leaves us as a legacy his example of a self-sacrificing revolutionary, a sensitive poet, a dialogical intellectual, a man dedicated to humanity’s most noble causes. To his family and to my family at the Casa de las Américas, a fraternal embrace of resurrection,” wrote the Brazilian intellectual Frei Betto.

Ernest Pépin, the Guadeloupean writer, said that he will remember Retamar as a man who served a revolution that has always stayed the course.

With words from César Vallejo, Peruvian poet Hildebrando Pérez Grande insisted: “His cadaver is full of the world.”

Spanish writer Selena Millares is convinced his words will always be with us: “Something no one will ever be able to erase.”

Dominican poet Chiqui Vicioso remembered him as “a reaffirmation of our utopias;” and Venezuelan writer Freddy Ñañez summed up: “The words left by our host, our father Calibán, are arrows stopped in time that continue to extend his life with the possibilities left intact in poetry and pure ethical presence… there will be a future to follow in the footsteps of the great Roberto Fernández Retamar.”

(Granma)

Surprised upon learning the news, Retamar told Granma International that he was extraordinarily honored on being “the first Cuban to receive it and coming from an institution like UNESCO – which is a true oasis in this world – which Martí would have been very proud of.”

As Prensa Latina reported, also highlighted was Retamar’s work as president of the Casa de las Américas for four decades, noting he “has contributed permanently, from this prestigious center, to the promotion of peace, solidarity, human rights and equality among Latin American and Caribbean nations, values recognized by this Award.”

Retamar, a tireless scholar of the life and work of the most universal of Cubans, José Martí, among many other topics, received the prestigious award during the 4th International Conference FOR WORLD BALANCE, held January 28 through 31, at the Havana International Conference Center.

(Granma)