Cintio Vitier Leaves Us a Permanent Patriotic and Humane Legacy
By Madeleine Sautié Rodríguez  

With the conviction of the permanence of the patriotic, humane and intellectual legacy of his life and work, the Cuban people said good-bye to notable writer Cintio Vitier on Friday at Havana’s Colón Cemetery, where he was buried.  

Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro and President Raúl Castro sent flowers as a sign of admiration and respect toward a man that practiced an exemplary vocation in the study and promotion of the work of Cuba’s National Hero in the revolutionary process.  

Along with his beloved companion in life, poet and essayist Fina García Marruz, his relatives, and a large group of intellectuals, Politburo members Esteban Lazo Hernández, Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada and Abel Prieto Jiménez, and the head of the Office for the José Martí Program, Armando Hart, attended the funeral rites. 

Also present were, among others, Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Monsignor Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. 

While saying farewell to the beloved intellectual at the Cemetery, Havana City Historian Eusebio Leal affirmed, with moving expressions, that the entire nation shares the grief that saying good-bye to Cintio, a man of great human nature, represents.  

"Cuban culture –he stressed – has lost for a few hours one of its pillars, but let’s not be afraid, his work will support it – an everlasting work, born from a vocation rooted throughout time by several generations."