Enrique Jose Varona

Enrique Jose Varona, who lived from April 13, 1848 to November 13, 1933, was a Cuban author and politician born in Puerto Principe who began contributing to periodicals in 1864 and, after settling in Havana in 1874, combined teaching and journalism while building a reputation as a major intellectual figure. In 1885 he founded the Revista Cubana, described as a literary, scientific and philosophical review, and delivered a series of philosophical lectures published as Conferencias filosoficas: Logica and Psicologia between 1880 and 1881, followed by Estudios literarios y filosoficos in 1883, with his Logica translated into French in recognition of its influence in philosophical circles. He went on to serve as Cuba's Minister of Finance and later Minister of Public Instruction during the United States military occupation, was elected to Spain's Cortes in 1885, and served as Vice President of Cuba from 1913 to 1917 under President Mario Garcia Menocal, withdrawing from public life after 1917 to focus on academic and literary work until his death in Havana.