Eduard Encina, the greatest poet that the Contramaestre Municipality of the province of Santiago de Cuba has ever had. Born in the town of Baire, eight kilometers west from this city.
He was President of the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS) of this municipality and left a work in poetry for posterity, awarded at the national level for its quality in the use of aesthetic resources and the social message always linked to the reality of his people.
He chose the path to immortality. He was even a poet to die. He chose September 8, 2017, Día de la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (“Day of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre”). He did so under a downpour in the afternoon.
Those who die at such times are too good. This is what Vallejo wanted in a verse: “I will die in Paris with a downpour, / one day of which I already have the memory”.
He died when Hurricane Irma left Contramaestre, Baire, his islands of dreams and struggles in eastern Cuba, where he wrote all his books, without ever wanting to go anywhere else.
Eduard Encina’s passage to literary immortality is valued here by intellectuals, friends and people linked to his fruitful existence.