AGUSTÍN BLÁZQUEZ: Abridged biography

Born in Cárdenas Cuba, I grew up in the towns of Coliseo and Limonar. From a very early age I felt a strong attraction to a life devoted to art. With the visual arts as my avocation, my studies were in the field of dramatic arts. While working as an actor I wrote four one act plays, a monologue and several radio plays.

Because of the oppressive and increasingly totalitarian tenor of the Castro regime, I felt my personal freedom to be in peril. Eventually I decided that I had no choice but to leave my native land, as difficult and frightening as that was. I left Cuba on July 18, 1965.

In 1966, in Spain, and then in the US after emigrating here, I exhibited my art work. In 1975 I wrote two screenplays. But, it was my art work that led to an official notification from the Egyptian Embassy that I would be a guest of the Egyptian Government in March 1978. After my return from Egypt I wrote a book about my trip titled THE KILLER FLIES OF LUXOR (unpublished).

I began writing political commentaries in 1968, but it was not until 1984 that the first one was published. Beginning in 1992, my articles began to appear more often. On November 6, 1995, the documentary I produced and directed, COVERING CUBA, was previewed at the Kennedy Center’s American Film Institute in Washington, DC. My documentary was shown six times on local cable television as well as MEMORIES FROM EGYPT and RUBÉN AND HIS MUSIC in 1997 and 1999.

My review of Dan Rather’s “The Last Revolutionary” CBS Special, was featured in the August 1996 AIM Report. A weekly column ultimately titled UNCOVERING CUBA in the newspaper El Tiempo Latino ran from November 1996 to February 1998 when the publisher expressed concern that it was not consistent with the goals of the newspaper.

In addition to El Tiempo Latino, articles have appeared in other publications like The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Washington Inquirer, Guerra and the magazines Contacto, Ideal, Sentencia Internacional in the US and abroad in English and Spanish. They are also distributed on the Internet.