Desiderio Navarro


Desiderio Navarro Pérez was a Cuban art, culture and literature critic.

Career

Navarro was born on May 13, 1948, in Camagüey, died in Havana on December 7, 2017. In the middle of the sixties he started to publish his first articles and studies in several Cuban and foreign magazines, in the field of literature, visual arts, aesthetics and cultural science.
In course of time his articles were published in magazines and papers in North and Latin America, and Europe. He has been a visiting professor at various universities and institutes in the world, and he organizes debates between international speakers. His books have been published in more than ten languages.
In 1972 he founded the journal Criterios, in 1994 the book series Criterios, and in 2011 the e-zine Denken Pensée Thought Mysl. Information Service on European Cultural Thought. In this leading magazine he brings together important essays from various languages on themes like aesthetics, literature, art and culture. Next to those, he writes articles himself as well.
He has translated from sixteen Romance, Germanic, Slavic and Uraloaltaic languages over 450 theoretical texts on literature, arts, culture and society. These translations have been published in Cuba, Spain and Mexico.
In 2003 he founded the Center for Cultural Theory Criterios.

Recognition

In 1996 Navarro received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Furthermore, he received a grant from the Prince Claus Fund from the Netherlands twice, in 1999 and 2005, in order to be able to continue his project Criterios.
Furthermore, he was honored with a number of awards, of which the following is a selection: