Tomás Fernández, notable figure in Cuban bibliography, dies at 83

The literary universe in Cuba mourns on Saturday the passing of the outstanding bibliographer and cultural researcher Tomás Fernández at the age of 83.

Several websites have published on Saturday the sad news, especially the José Martí national Library, which bids him farewell “with the certainty that his personality and his work will remain among us and among all those for whom his work will constitute a legacy of usefulness and knowledge”.

Tomás Fernández Robaina, our beloved Tomasito, has passed away. For his fellow librarians and also for those who knew him in Cuba and abroad, Tomasito embodies the history of the National Library over the last six decades, a place he considered his own home.

A bibliographer, researcher of Cuban culture, of our African roots, of the social history of black people in Cuba, as well as professor, essayist, cultural promoter.

His profound and indispensable intellectual work is and will be a reference for Cuban culture. A rebellious and nonconformist spirit like his does not die, it remains alive, adds the article from the National Library, where he has been working since 1962.