MATANZAS, Cuba.- Floral offerings of Army General Raul Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, President of the Councils of State and Ministers, accompany the ashes of Carilda Oliver Labra, who died today at 96.

In the colonial house on 81 Calzada de Tirry intellectual, artists and the people paid tribute to the National Prize of Literature in the city where the author Al Sur de mi garganta (To the south of my throat) wrote her lyrical work, epic and erotic, of great relevance in the Hispanic letters.

Alpidio Alonso, Minister of Culture of Cuba, said Carilda´s death is a severe blow to the national culture, because she was a woman who was at the forefront, made a real contribution to human emancipation and sang to Matanzas and her country.

You cannot be superficial in valuing the work of Carilda, the Minister urged, she loved her land intensely, it is impossible to speak of Matanzas without mentioning her. She made no concessions and left us the deepest of the lessons: how a poet must live and die.

Nancy Morejon and Anton Arrufat, National Awards of Literature, expressed pain to the loss of their friend, highlighted her poetic work. They added her ambition was that all Cuba´s land was on her body, on her corpse, as she expressed in the poem titled The Land that can be read on a commemorative plaque on a street in Old Havana.

For Luis Morlote Rivas, vice-president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, it was not pure formality that young people decided to give Carilda the Youth Teacher Award. She is a teacher of generations, is one of those people who has an immense work Intellectually and she is also popular, in her Calzada de Tirry house always the entire island fit.

Carilda Oliver Tilla (Matanzas 1922-2018) died in the dawn of this Wednesday at her home. She leaves about 40 books published in several languages, numerous awards and decorations.

The popular tribute to the so-called Bride of Matanzas was attended by Lazara Mercedes Lopez Acea, member of the Political Bureau, and Victor Fidel Gaute, member of the Secretariat, as well as Teresa Rojas Monzon and Tania Leon Silveira, First Secretary of the Party and President of the Provincial Government, respectively.