Santiago Álvarez
Born: Havana, Cuba, 8 March 1919.
Died: Havana, Cuba, 20 May 1998.
During his student days in the US, he worked as a dishwasher in Brooklyn and as a coal miner in Pennsylvania. Returning to Cuba in the early 40s, he joined the Communist Party and was arrested repeatedly for his underground activities against the Batista regime. Shortly after the Castro revolution, he was appointed to various posts at the Cuban Institute of Film Art and Industry (ICAIC), including chief of the newsreel division. In the early 60s, he began directing newsreels and documentaries, and before long became established as his country’s leading cine-journalist. His films are noted for their audiovisual dynamics and polemic vigour. In 1983 he directed his first fiction feature, Refugiados de la Cueva del Muerto (“Refugees from the Death Cave”).
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