José Villalta Saavedra (born January 27, 1862,

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.Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

) 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 ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. One of the first native Cuban sculptors, Villalta was a

mulatto ( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...

born 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.Reale Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara. He worked in Italy and

Cienfuegos Cienfuegos (), capital of Cienfuegos Province, is a city on the southern coast of Cuba. It is located about from Havana and has a population of 178,368 in 2022. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, ...

Works

Villalta created several important Cuban monuments and statues, including the statue of José Marti located 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.Parque Central (Central Park) (dedicated February 24, 1905) and the monument to Cuban engineer

Francisco de Albear Francisco de Albear y Fernández de Lara (January 11, 1816, Havana – October 22, 1887, Havana) was a Spanish engineer from Cuba. Biography Son of Colonel Francisco de Albear y Hernández, governor of the Morro Castle of Havana he was sent to st ...

. Villalta completed the Albear statue in

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of medieval European t ...

in 1893. The sculptor won a national competition to create a memorial to eight Cuban medical students executed in 1871 by Spanish colonial troops. It was completed in 1889, and it was the first monument made in Cuba by a Cuban artist. Porton de entrada Cementerio de Colon

In Havana's Necropolis Cristobal Colon (

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

Cemetery), Villalta made the sculptures of the

Virtues A virtue () is a trait of excellence, including traits that may be moral, social, or intellectual. The cultivation and refinement of virtue is held to be the "good of humanity" and thus is valued as an end purpose of life or a foundational pri ...

(Faith, Hope and Charity) above the main cemetery entrance and the religious relief sculptures around the cemetery walls. Villalta also created the monument at the most visited place in Necropolis Colon, the grave of Amelia Goyri de la Hoz e Adot a woman known as "La Milagrosa" ("The Miraculous Woman" or "The Miraculous One"). An upper-class woman, she died in childbirth in 1901 at age 23, and her stillborn son was placed at her feet when she was buried. According to legend, when the grave was opened years later, her corpse was intact – a sign of holiness – and her son was nestled in her arms. Amelia is considered by many to be Cuba's unofficial saint. Cubans come to her grave every day to ask for children or love affairs. Villalta carved the sculpture out of one piece of Carrara

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

, and he finished the work in 1902. In his last years, he made the marble monument of Joaquín Albarrán, in Sagua La Grande, in 1910 and the monument dedicated to the martyrs, located in the Martyrs Park, in the city of Cárdenas, Matanzas Province, Cuba. The last one was placed in 1912, shortly after Villalta's death.

References

* 1865 births 1912 deaths Cuban male sculptors 19th-century Cuban sculptors 20th-century Cuban sculptors 20th-century Cuban male artists {{Cuba-sculptor-stub