Las Tunas writer Miguel Mariano Piñero Martínez won the 2025 Cucalambé Prize with his book "Delirios insulares," an award he had previously won in 2014, with "(In)mutaciones del solitario.”
Las Tunas, Cuba.- The jury, composed of Argel Fernández Granado (Las Tunas), Agustín Serrano (Holguín), and Diusmel Machado (Camagüey), awarded him after analyzing 16 competing works, but not before recognizing the quality of all the texts submitted.
Likewise, Camagüey native Domingo Peña earned a mention for his poetry collection "Miré los muros de la patria mía." The results were announced on Sunday at the Catauro de la Décima, held in Las Ruinas of "El Cornito."
“Delirios Insulares” is about those ‘deliriums’ we experience when we live on an island, surrounded by the sea, those yearnings to see Van Gogh's sunflowers. The heartbeats of Borges, Vallejo, and many others are there; although I also dedicate poems to people who have shaped my life, my wife, children, grandchildren... I especially honor my grandfather Julián, who instilled in me a love for the octosyllable rhyme, as he was an improviser poet and I grew up listening to him sing.”
Regarding what it means to win this important competition for the second time, he said: “It's an immense satisfaction. Let my wife, Mercedes, know about it. She is my muse and inspiration.”
Miguel Mariano Piñero chairs the National Group of Rural Writers, based in San José, in the municipality of Colombia. Since he was a child, he has wholeheartedly dedicated himself to defending Cuba's national stanza. At 66, he confesses: "The décima is the most beautiful thing in poetry. You have to immerse yourself in 'that prison of pure air,' as it was called, to make it work."