As part of the commemorative activities in Panama for the Day of Cuban Culture, dedicated this year to the author of “The Kingdom of this World” (1949), the diplomat offered a master lecture at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Panama.

Cairo asserted that Carpentier’s literary work engendered the so called “wonderful real”, a resource that bears the identity and a foundational reference for Latin America and the Caribbean.

He described the writer’s thought as a model of syncretism that allowed him to incorporate features of the most advanced culture of Europe and America, with a genuinely universal sense and closely connected to the popular interests and aspirations of the region.

This special projection of his interpretation of regional reality, he said, made him one of the most illustrious personalities of the avant-garde and Cuban thought, making him a worthy recipient of the Cervantes Prize in 1977 for the significance of his work.

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