This August 8 marks the 60th anniversary of the death of Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, Doctor in Civil and Notarial Law and Historian, ethnologist, journalist and Cuban patriot who was born on August 23, 1889 in Havana, and was the author of books and pamphlets, as well as editor of several volumes, among them the first Cuban edition of The Golden Age in 1932, preceded by his study Martí y los niños (Martí and the Children).
He participated, in 1923, in the Protest of the Thirteen, was a member of the Grupo Minorista and the first Historian of Havana from 1935 until his death; an essential revolutionary, although he did not belong to any party, he was always in the vanguard of society, committed to just and democratic causes.
He joined organizations such as the Liga Antiimperialista de Cuba, founded by Carlos Baliño and Julio Antonio Mella, and the Grupo Minorista, where he closed ranks with Ruben Martinez Villena and Juan Marinello, and as a revolutionary writer he joined Alejo Carpentier, and was the chronicler of this regenerative movement.
Through the cultural institutions he directed, Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring united intellectuals of all tendencies in favor of the rescue of history and national values, against colonialism and imperialism, for that purpose he developed the scientific study of the History of Cuba and, in addition, he fought and achieved the preservation and restoration of patrimonial places.
Roig gave conferences in national and international events, worked tirelessly in favor of peace and social equality in Cuba and the world; he created friendship institutions with Mexico, Puerto Rico, Republican Spain, Dominican Republic and the Soviet Union, among others.
In 1942, precisely when the National History Congresses began, he was elected president of the Society of Freethinkers of Cuba, and two years later he was appointed member of the National Board of Archeology and Ethnology.
