El Fígaro was a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

published in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. It began as a sports magazine, but evolved into a more general interest consumer magazine and became "the driving force of the Cuban press and of national culture." El Fígaro included sections on

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, and current affairs. Many of Cuba's early revolutionary writers, poets, painters, artists, journalists, and activists contributed to this magazine. The National Library of Cuba writes of El Fígaro: "Without a doubt, El Fígaro is among the most representative periodical publications of the 19th century in Cuba. Its content and illustrations are a reflection of our culture and show the development of the press in the largest of the Antilles, a luxury magazine that, over time, its almost obligatory consultation brings us extraordinary results."

History

On July 23, 1885, El Fígaro was founded by Rafael Bárzaga, Manuel Serafín Pichardo, Ramón A. Catalá, Crescencio Sacerio. Its first issue, and several issues that followed, primarily covered

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

baseball in Cuba Baseball was popularized in Cuba by Nemesio Guillot, who founded the first major baseball club in the country. It became the most played sport in the country in the 1870s, before the period of American intervention. Despite its American origin ...

, with the editors writing in the first issue that they were “dedicated to defending the interests of sport in general and especially those of the game of baseball, which has so many fans.” On September 2, 1886, the mission and purpose of the magazine expanded to cover literature and the arts.

Notable people

Contributors

Juana Borrero Juana Borrero (May 18, 1877 – March 9, 1896) was a Cuban painter and poet. Biography Juana Borrero was born May 18, 1877. She was a native of the Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana. She was the daughter of the writer and patriot Esteban B ...

Julian del Casal Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian, of the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (given name), people w ...

* Carlos Pio * Federico Pio * Ruben Dario *

Manuel Sanguily Manuel Sanguily (7 February 1933 – 15 November 2022) was a Cuban-American physician and swimmer who represented Cuba in the 1952 Summer Olympics and in the 1956 Summer Olympics. He was also the flag bearer for Cuba at the 1956 games. Followi ...

* Enrique Jose Varona * Justo de Lara * Conrado Walter Massaguer *

Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring was a prominent Cubans, Cuban journalist whose work occupied the first half of the twentieth century, prior to the Cuban Revolution. He was also a historian, who has published over one hundred books on history. He creat ...

* Manuel Maria Mustelier * Vicente Acosta * Isabel Margarita Ordetx * Agustín Acosta Bello * José Manuel Acosta Bello *

Gregorio de Laferrère Gregorio de Laferrère (March 8, 1867 — November 30, 1913) was an Argentine politician and playwright. Life and work Gregorio de Laferrère was born in Buenos Aires to Mercedes Pereda, a local heiress, and Alfonso de Laferrère, a prominent Fre ...

Miguel Ángel Quevedo Pérez Miguel Ángel Quevedo y Pérez was a Cuban journalist, newspaper director, and magazine publisher. He created Revista Bohemia, ''Bohemia'', which became the most popular magazine in Cuba, and still in existence is the oldest consumer magazine in ...

* Mariano Brull *

Sarah Méndez Capote Sarah Méndez-Capote y Chaple was a Cuban writer, poet, translator, suffragist, and feminist activist. She was the sister of writer Renée Méndez Capote. Life and work The daughter of Domingo Méndez Capote and María Chaple y Suárez, she pub ...

* Sotero Figueroa * María Vinyals * Félix B. Caignet * José Gómez de la Carrera * Rafael Santa Coloma * Santiago Quiñones * Sebastián Gelabert

Editors

* Rafael Bárzaga (1885 – 1909) * Manuel Serafín Pichardo (1887 – 1915) * Ramón A. Catalá (1909 – 1929)

References

External links

* University of Florida archive: https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00054773/00002/7 * WorldCat: https://search.worldcat.org/title/figaro/oclc/52253694 * UCLA Archive: https://idep.library.ucla.edu/search#!/document/latinamericanandcaribbeanperiodicals:12695 History of Cuba Cuban artists Cuban writers Magazines published in Cuba Defunct magazines published in Cuba Magazines established in 1885 Magazines disestablished in 1933 {{Media in Cuba