When he died in Havana last Saturday, Germán Piniella lost a fight against cancer, but not the war. Until the last minute of its 85th anniversary, it fought for its truths, which it shared with the fate of its people, in defense of Cuban culture, ethics and the revolution.
The image that remains is that of a man who conceived of culture as an integral process, from fictional writing and journalism to the management of social networks, where he revealed the sharpest contours of his way of thinking and acting.
As a short story writer, he gained fame with the book in 1971 On the road again, and in 2013 he published the novel A touch of melancholy, enough to write his name in the most remarkable saga of Cuban police literature. He became pregnant with his partner Amelia Rodríguez Eating with Doña Lita (2010), Interesting Approach to Culinary Culture.
However, Germán’s stamp went well beyond the books he published, including his literary translations of contemporary American literature. The accompaniment of the critics, the record production and promotion of the writers and troubadours of his generation – essential to his work around Noel Nicola and Augusto Blanca – was notable for the seriousness and clarity with which he took that commitment.
The Cuban Association of Social Communicators awarded him the space prize for his life’s work. Both the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba and the Union of Journalists of Cuba, organizations to which he belonged, lamented the loss of Germán.