March, 2025 – On this day of the year 2001 when she was 90 years old, Doralina de la Caridad Alonso y Pérez-Corcho, a prestigious Cuban writer who also worked as a journalist, died in Havana; she was born on December 22, 1910 in Recreo, in the municipality of Martí, province of Matanzas.
Popularly known as Dora Alonso, she is the Cuban author for children most translated and published abroad, with works distinguished by a literary narrative style based on simplicity and handling of emotions, always highlighting in her texts the Cuban peasantry through the recreation of its human values and love for nature.
When she was only nine years old, she won a provincial literary contest with a composition about her family’s travels from El Recreo to Martí, and at her suggestion, the prize money (25 pesos) was given to a mulatto girl of difficult economic situation, who in turn had won second place in the contest.
Already since then, she showed her sensitivity, later transmuted to hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Latinos and Hispanic Americans who have learned from her books and characters, such as the national puppet Pelusín del Monte, the Pájara Pinta or Guille.
Cuban storyteller, playwright, poet and journalist considered one of the most important writers for children, Dora Alonso wrote numerous literary and theater plays for teenagers and young adults, and several novels for radio and television.
Several of her novels, such as Tierra brava, Río abajo, Tierra nueva, Por los verdes caminos, Tierra adentro, Flor de aguinaldo and Rancho Luna, are broadcast in Puerto Rico, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and other countries.
Awarded twice in Casa de las Americas, for the transcendence of her vast intellectual production she was also awarded the National Prize for Literature and other recognitions such as the Felix Varela Order of first degree and the José Martí World Prize for Children’s Literature; Dora Alonso also received the Commemorative Medals for the 20th anniversary of the Invasion of Playa Girón and the Alejo Carpentier Award, and the Distinction for National Culture in 1982.
Dora Alonso joined the revolutionary struggles from an early age, was a member in 1934, in the anti-imperialist organization Joven Cuba, led by Antonio Guiteras, and was a contributor to various newspapers and magazines, including Prensa Libre, Ellas, Vanidades, Carteles, Pionero, Bohemia and Casa de las Americas; she was a war correspondent during the mercenary invasion of Playa Giron and the October Crisis.
