Héctor Zumbado
Encyclopedia
Héctor Zumbado Argueta (born in Havana
in 1932), also known as H. Zumbado is a Cuba
n writer, journalist, critic, humorist, and essayist. He is known for his keen and sharp critiques, which have a Cuban manner, style and humor. In his words, "humor is a weapon, because it criticizes and exposes at the same time, and does so with a smile. Then that who is targeted cannot get too angry." (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 237).
He has published: Limonada (Lemonade), 1978; Amor a primer añejo, 1980; Riflexiones (a portmanteau word
that could be translated as Riflections), 1980; Prosas en ajiaco (Proses on pottage), 1984; El American Way (The American Way), 1981; ¡Esto le zumba!, 1981; and Kitsch, Kitsch, ¡BANG, BANG!, 1988. He has written for several Cuban and foreign press publications, like Juventud Rebelde
and the magazine Bohemia.
Zumbado has collaborated with publications of Chile
, Uruguay
, Dominican Republic
, Argelia
, India
, Norway
, and the former RDA
, among others (3).
In 2000, he was the first person to be awarded the Cuban National Humor Award (Premio Nacional de Humorismo) (3).
As a social manners critic, his favorite subject is bureaucracy
(Prosas en ajiaco, p. 247).
, at Havana
, Cuba
, in 1932. His mother was born in Nicaragua
, and his father was from Costa Rica
. They met in Madrid
, and married in New York
. In the decade of 1930s his father, who worked for a transnational company, was moved to the company's office in Havana (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 236).
From 1948 to 1950, Zumbado resided in the United States
(3) where he studied for the bachelor degree in the early 1950s. During that time, he wrote some works for a publication in English language. He took a commercial career at a university in Kentucky
, which he left unfinished, because of, as he stated, hating numbers (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 236).
H. Zumbado's life as a worker started in Venezuela
, where he worked as a commercial translator, money collector in a navigation company, and salesman (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 234). In Caracas
, Venezuela, he tried to become a bullfighter, though he did not pass beyond "the phase of the wooden bull, with a real head and wheels" (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 234).
He went to Haiti
, in 1953 (3) and worked as an auditor for the electric company at Port-au-Prince
. In his own words: "they were looking for a young person who could speak French and knew about accounting and I took the chance, though the one thing I had to fulfill the requirements was my youth, since I had no knowledge of French or accounting." (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 235).
From 1953 to 1956 (3), Zumbado worked at a North American Insurance company, as an archivist, and was fired after straying the policy of a Gómez Mena family aristocrat's jewels (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 235). He has also worked as an office systems seller (Prosas en Ajiaco, p. 235).
Zumbado worked in Cuba mixing products in a laboratory, of the brand GRAVI, where they made deodorants. As he said: "I went out so clean and fragant every day, that I didn't need to take a bath, I looked like a baby." (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 235).
Between 1956 and 1961 he was a writer of publicity texts for tourism agencies (3). That was his job by 1959 with the advent of the Cuban Revolution
. In 1961 he was appointed as a publicity chief at INIT (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 236), and then worked as a researcher of the demand, in a research department of the Ministry of Industries, until 1963 (3), when, he would start doing the same work for the Ministry of the Food Industry. That was up to 1967, when he moved to Juventud Rebelde
.
In 1963 he wrote several stories for the magazine Bohemia, which was his initiation in literature. Between that year and 1967 he published about fifteen stories, in a humorous style and mood. Due to this, he was asked to work with La Chicharra, a humor publication of Juventud Rebelde. He accepted because, as he states, he wished to work as a writer (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 248). In La Chicharra he wrote the section Limonada (Lemonade), that would later be published in the newspaper on Sundays, between 1969 and 1970, to be compiled later in a book in 1978.
From Juventud Rebelde, he went to work at Prensa Latina, where he wrote an international section, that was released in about fifteen countries, under the title El American Way, satirizing the North American way of life
.
Later on, between 1971 and 1973, Zumbado was a chief editor at the magazine Cuba, and at La hiena triste (The sad hyena), a publication of the UNEAC (Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba) (3). Then he worked for the Institute of the Domestic Demand as an exportable funds publicity and promotion adviser of the integral promotion group (EMPI), where he worked together with his wife, Mabel (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 236).
Between 1986 and 1988 H. Zumbado worked as chief of the humor page of Bohemia, and had some collaborations, in 1987, with the Cuban radio station Radio Rebelde
(3). In 1988, he started working as chief editor of the Cuban tourism magazine Sol y Son.
In the year 2000, H. Zumbado was awarded the National Humor Award (Premio Nacional de Humorismo) of Cuba. Zumbado was the first to be given the award, since that was its first edition (3).
Zumbado has been awarded the medal Raúl Gómez García, and the class of the National Culture (3). He has two sons and two daughters, from oldest to youngest: Héctor, Karla, Yamil, and Teriana (Prosas en ajiaco, pp. 235–236).
Commenting on the purpose of the work, the author states:
About the title, H. Zumbado asserts: "This section was called this way because it was intended to be something fresh and that's all the truth and not as some claim -including my wife- that the title is as well due to the acid in the lemon." (Limonada, pp. 8–9).
The articles were compiled in the book Limonada, published in 1978, by the editorial Letras Cubanas.
The book featured a "Prilogue", which, in the author's words, is a hybrid of a prologue and an epilogue; to help with readers who would read the prologue after reading the rest of the book, or the epilogue before; and helps with writers and critics who would write a good epilogue for a prologue, and vice-versa. This "prilogue" was written by Héctor Zumbado himself.
The illustrations in the book were made by Jorge Hernández, and the cover of the book was made by Guerrero.
The book has thirty-eight short stories, grouped in four sections. The grouping in three sections was done for the book, and not for the original articles or their publication.
One of the best virtues of these Riflexiones of Zumbado are that they are legible, understandable by every kind of readers, with any cultural level, but without easy concessions. He does not hesitate, indeed, in using plenty and in a very smart way, the literary, historical, or philosophical citations; but without resulting in a dark text for those readers who do not know the references .
Riflexiones was published as a book in 1980.
The term riflexión is a portmanteau word
, merging rifle (Spanish for rifle) and reflexión (Spanish for reflexion, meditation). Therefore, riflexión could be translated as riflection. The term riflexiones is its plural form. As a verb, it is riflexionar, which could be translated as to riflect. In H. Zumbado's own words: "I thought of name of the section as a word play that combines thinking, reflecting, and the concept of critics, a kind of focusing and aiming." (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 237).
The stories are full of sharp criticism about social aberrations and Cuban manners; with a spontaneous, sarcastic, and funny style (¡Esto le zumba!).
According to the author, the book is about all the stories that he had written in the last twenty years; from El hombre del teléfono (The man of the phone), written in February, 1963, to La croqueta (The croquette), written in early March, 1981 (¡Esto le zumba!, p. 7).
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
in 1932), also known as H. Zumbado is a Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n writer, journalist, critic, humorist, and essayist. He is known for his keen and sharp critiques, which have a Cuban manner, style and humor. In his words, "humor is a weapon, because it criticizes and exposes at the same time, and does so with a smile. Then that who is targeted cannot get too angry." (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 237).
He has published: Limonada (Lemonade), 1978; Amor a primer añejo, 1980; Riflexiones (a portmanteau word
Portmanteau word
A portmanteau or portmanteau word is a blend of two words or morphemes into one new word. A portmanteau word typically combines both sounds and meanings, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog. More generally, it may refer to any term or phrase that combines two or more meanings...
that could be translated as Riflections), 1980; Prosas en ajiaco (Proses on pottage), 1984; El American Way (The American Way), 1981; ¡Esto le zumba!, 1981; and Kitsch, Kitsch, ¡BANG, BANG!, 1988. He has written for several Cuban and foreign press publications, like Juventud Rebelde
Juventud Rebelde (newspaper)
The Juventud Rebelde is a Cuban newspaper of the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas .On October 21, 1965 Fidel Castro described the newspaper as ".....
and the magazine Bohemia.
Zumbado has collaborated with publications of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, Argelia
Argelia
Argelia is a Portuguese and Spanish term for Algeria and may also mean:*Argelia, Antioquia a town and municipality in Antioquia Department*Argelia, Cauca a town and municipality in Cauca Department...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and the former RDA
RDA
-Databases, information technology and computing:* Remote Database Access, a protocol standard for database access* Remote Diagnostic Agent, a diagnostic tool for Oracle database environments...
, among others (3).
In 2000, he was the first person to be awarded the Cuban National Humor Award (Premio Nacional de Humorismo) (3).
As a social manners critic, his favorite subject is bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
(Prosas en ajiaco, p. 247).
Biography
Héctor Zumbado was born in the zone of VedadoVedado
Vedado is the downtown and a vibrant neighboorhood in the city of Havana, Cuba. Bordered on the east by Central Havana, and on the west by the Miramar/Playa district. The main street running east to west is Calle 23, also known as 'La Rampa'...
, at Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, in 1932. His mother was born in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, and his father was from Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
. They met in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, and married in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In the decade of 1930s his father, who worked for a transnational company, was moved to the company's office in Havana (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 236).
From 1948 to 1950, Zumbado resided in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(3) where he studied for the bachelor degree in the early 1950s. During that time, he wrote some works for a publication in English language. He took a commercial career at a university in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, which he left unfinished, because of, as he stated, hating numbers (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 236).
H. Zumbado's life as a worker started in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, where he worked as a commercial translator, money collector in a navigation company, and salesman (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 234). In Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela, he tried to become a bullfighter, though he did not pass beyond "the phase of the wooden bull, with a real head and wheels" (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 234).
He went to Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, in 1953 (3) and worked as an auditor for the electric company at Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
. In his own words: "they were looking for a young person who could speak French and knew about accounting and I took the chance, though the one thing I had to fulfill the requirements was my youth, since I had no knowledge of French or accounting." (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 235).
From 1953 to 1956 (3), Zumbado worked at a North American Insurance company, as an archivist, and was fired after straying the policy of a Gómez Mena family aristocrat's jewels (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 235). He has also worked as an office systems seller (Prosas en Ajiaco, p. 235).
Zumbado worked in Cuba mixing products in a laboratory, of the brand GRAVI, where they made deodorants. As he said: "I went out so clean and fragant every day, that I didn't need to take a bath, I looked like a baby." (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 235).
Between 1956 and 1961 he was a writer of publicity texts for tourism agencies (3). That was his job by 1959 with the advent of the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
. In 1961 he was appointed as a publicity chief at INIT (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 236), and then worked as a researcher of the demand, in a research department of the Ministry of Industries, until 1963 (3), when, he would start doing the same work for the Ministry of the Food Industry. That was up to 1967, when he moved to Juventud Rebelde
Juventud Rebelde (newspaper)
The Juventud Rebelde is a Cuban newspaper of the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas .On October 21, 1965 Fidel Castro described the newspaper as ".....
.
In 1963 he wrote several stories for the magazine Bohemia, which was his initiation in literature. Between that year and 1967 he published about fifteen stories, in a humorous style and mood. Due to this, he was asked to work with La Chicharra, a humor publication of Juventud Rebelde. He accepted because, as he states, he wished to work as a writer (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 248). In La Chicharra he wrote the section Limonada (Lemonade), that would later be published in the newspaper on Sundays, between 1969 and 1970, to be compiled later in a book in 1978.
From Juventud Rebelde, he went to work at Prensa Latina, where he wrote an international section, that was released in about fifteen countries, under the title El American Way, satirizing the North American way of life
American way
The American way of life is an expression that refers to the lifestyle of people living in the United States of America. It is an example of a behavioral modality, developed from the 17th century until today...
.
Later on, between 1971 and 1973, Zumbado was a chief editor at the magazine Cuba, and at La hiena triste (The sad hyena), a publication of the UNEAC (Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba) (3). Then he worked for the Institute of the Domestic Demand as an exportable funds publicity and promotion adviser of the integral promotion group (EMPI), where he worked together with his wife, Mabel (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 236).
Between 1986 and 1988 H. Zumbado worked as chief of the humor page of Bohemia, and had some collaborations, in 1987, with the Cuban radio station Radio Rebelde
Radio Rebelde
Radio Rebelde is a Cuban Spanish-language radio station. It broadcasts 24 hours a day with a varied program of national and international music hits of the moment, news reports and live sport events...
(3). In 1988, he started working as chief editor of the Cuban tourism magazine Sol y Son.
In the year 2000, H. Zumbado was awarded the National Humor Award (Premio Nacional de Humorismo) of Cuba. Zumbado was the first to be given the award, since that was its first edition (3).
Zumbado has been awarded the medal Raúl Gómez García, and the class of the National Culture (3). He has two sons and two daughters, from oldest to youngest: Héctor, Karla, Yamil, and Teriana (Prosas en ajiaco, pp. 235–236).
Limonada
Limonada (Lemonade, in English) is a series of short articles of manners, written by H. Zumbado for the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde. There were about forty published from May 1969 to March 1971, mostly on Sundays. (Limonada, p. 9).Commenting on the purpose of the work, the author states:
- "I think that, generally speaking, Limonada attempts to criticize some habits, especially of some deficiencies in temperament, character, and personality; of some negative attitudes and other vices inherited since the times of Cristopher Columbus (...), that represented the tiny thing of 466 years, 2 months, and three days, influencing every day the Cuban idiosyncrasy, and, as it is to expect, were not to be erradicated in only twenty years of a new and higher way of being. On the other hand, Limonada attempts as well to catch some general traits of our peculiar psychology, including its positive facets." (Limonada, p. 9).
About the title, H. Zumbado asserts: "This section was called this way because it was intended to be something fresh and that's all the truth and not as some claim -including my wife- that the title is as well due to the acid in the lemon." (Limonada, pp. 8–9).
The articles were compiled in the book Limonada, published in 1978, by the editorial Letras Cubanas.
The book featured a "Prilogue", which, in the author's words, is a hybrid of a prologue and an epilogue; to help with readers who would read the prologue after reading the rest of the book, or the epilogue before; and helps with writers and critics who would write a good epilogue for a prologue, and vice-versa. This "prilogue" was written by Héctor Zumbado himself.
The illustrations in the book were made by Jorge Hernández, and the cover of the book was made by Guerrero.
The book has thirty-eight short stories, grouped in four sections. The grouping in three sections was done for the book, and not for the original articles or their publication.
Riflexiones
Riflexiones is a series of articles written by H. Zumbado, and published weekly, on Sundays, in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde. In the author's words: "Riflexiones is just an attempt of synthesis of what people say" (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 238). While Limonada is more about personal traits in the society of the time, Riflexiones is rather about attitudes, methods, and situations (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 245).One of the best virtues of these Riflexiones of Zumbado are that they are legible, understandable by every kind of readers, with any cultural level, but without easy concessions. He does not hesitate, indeed, in using plenty and in a very smart way, the literary, historical, or philosophical citations; but without resulting in a dark text for those readers who do not know the references .
Riflexiones was published as a book in 1980.
The term riflexión is a portmanteau word
Portmanteau word
A portmanteau or portmanteau word is a blend of two words or morphemes into one new word. A portmanteau word typically combines both sounds and meanings, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog. More generally, it may refer to any term or phrase that combines two or more meanings...
, merging rifle (Spanish for rifle) and reflexión (Spanish for reflexion, meditation). Therefore, riflexión could be translated as riflection. The term riflexiones is its plural form. As a verb, it is riflexionar, which could be translated as to riflect. In H. Zumbado's own words: "I thought of name of the section as a word play that combines thinking, reflecting, and the concept of critics, a kind of focusing and aiming." (Prosas en ajiaco, p. 237).
¡Esto le zumba!
The book ¡Esto le zumba! was published in 1981. The content of the book is twenty-five short stories.The stories are full of sharp criticism about social aberrations and Cuban manners; with a spontaneous, sarcastic, and funny style (¡Esto le zumba!).
According to the author, the book is about all the stories that he had written in the last twenty years; from El hombre del teléfono (The man of the phone), written in February, 1963, to La croqueta (The croquette), written in early March, 1981 (¡Esto le zumba!, p. 7).