Died in Havana on November 13, 1988 Fayad Jamis was a prominent poet, painter and teacher.

He was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, on October 27, 1930, but his life and work are related to Cuba, where he lived for many years until his death occurred.

His father was Cuban of Arab descent and his mother was Mexican. His childhood and adolescence developed in small cities in the interior of Cuba, where his family moved for economic needs.

At age 19 he moved to Havana and very soon showed his vocation for poetry and painting.

He initially entered the School of San Alejandro but there he was only for two and a half years due to his discrepancy with the study methods used in that center.

From a very young age he showed his qualities as a poet in "Sinfonía de Amor" and "Beyond the summer".

In his verses he showed an inquisitive language, between questions and definitions, with a song not without anxiety, as in his key poem entitled "Doubts and Affirmations".

Fayad Jamís in his beginnings his literary work reflected the influence of French and English poetry and also approached the system used by José Lezama Lima, with the image in the very center of the poem and its conception about it.

Later his poetry abandoned that character to enter the reflection of life through the everyday and man, in a stage of encouragement and hope.

Referring to the importance he attributed to poetry, Fayad Jamis said: "For me, my poetry is my revolver, my plow, my colt, my radar, my hammer, the key to despair and the key to dawn. And I believe that the work of a poet must be a profound and open testimony of his land and his time. "

In 1962 he won the Casa de las Américas Prize with his collection Por esta libertad, in which the poetic work that identified the book was reflected and in which he stated:

For this freedom of song under the rain
we will have to give everything

For this freedom to be closely tied
to the firm and sweet heart of the people
we will have to give everything
For this freedom of open sunflower in the dawn of factories
lit and schools lit
and of this earth that crunches and child that wakes up
we will have to give everything
There is no alternative but freedom
There is no other way than freedom
There is no other homeland than freedom
There will be no more poem without the violent music of freedom

For this freedom that is terror
of those who always raped her
in the name of lavish miseries
For this freedom that is the night of the oppressors
and the definitive dawn of all the already invincible people.
For this freedom that illuminates the sunken pupils
barefoot
the roofs bored
and the eyes of children who roam in the dust
For this freedom that is the empire of youth
For this freedom
beautiful as life
we will have to give everything
if necessary
until the shadow
and it will never be enough.

The poetry of Fayad Jamís was in close contact, direct, with the historical circumstances that he had to live.

About this he went on to state: "... the function of the poet in the Revolution is, in general, the same as that of any revolutionary of any profession. Each one struggles and builds with the instruments available to them and according to the circumstances of the process in which they have participated. "

In addition to being a poet, he was a painter and his starting point in the plastic arts was abstract expressionism with its inks and oils of pure experimentation and effects of color, although later his intention was increasingly lyrical.

Among his most famous works is a poem that he dedicated to the capital

Cuban in which he came to assure:

What would happen to me if you did not exist,

My city of Havana.

If you did not exist my dream city,

In clarity and built foam.

What would happen to me without your portals?

Your columns, your kisses, your windows.

When I wandered the world you went with me,

You were a song from my throat,

A little blue on my shirt,

An amulet against nostalgia.

And now I'm going all the way,

I live you all until dawn.

I am the wind in your parks and corners

I am that sun that caresses your soul,

City of my loves in the dust,

Beautiful city of rot and wings.

In you I was really born a month of January,

When he hit your chest with hope.

If I lived a great love it was among your streets,

If I live a great love has your face,

City of the loves of my life,

My wife forever without distance.

If you did not exist, I would invent you,

My city of Havana.

Another of the best known and most significant poems of Fayad Jamis is the one that he titled With so many woods that gave you life.

With so many clubs that gave you life
and you still give life to dreams.
You are a madman who never tires
to open windows and plant stars.

With so many clubs that the night gave you
so much cruelty and cold and so much fear
you are a sad looking maniac
who only knows how to love with the whole breast.

Build kites and poems
and other tales that the wind takes.
You are a sad looking maniac
who feels how a new world is born.

With so many clubs that gave you life
and you still do not get tired of saying: I love you.