Carilda Oliver Labra

Who is Carilda Oliver Labra?

Carilda Oliver Labra is a Cuban poet who was born in Matanzas in 1924.

Labra studied law at the University of Havana. She is also known to excel at drawing, painting and sculpting.

Known as one of the most influential Cuban poets, her work has focused on love, the role of women in society, and herself. Oliver Labra has received numerous national and international prizes including the National Poetry Prize, National Literature Award and the José de Vasconcelos International Prize. Me desordeno, amor, me desordeno might be her most famous poem. Other works such as Discurso de Eva also show a profound literary technique.

Her debut collection in 1943, Lyric Prelude immediately established her as an important poetic voice. At the South of My Throat made her famous: the coveted National Prize for poetry came to her in 1950 as a result of the popular and notorious book, At the South of My Throat 1949. In honor of the tri-centennial of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in a contest sponsored by The Latin American Society in Washington D.C., in 1950, she had also received the national Cuban First Prize for her poems.