Raúl Torres Awarded the 2026 Doctorado Nobilis Causa

Cuban singer-songwriter Raúl Torres is among the 37 intellectuals, artists, and social representatives from 11 countries distinguished with the 2026 Doctorado Nobilis Causa, awarded by the Sur Cultural Movement during a ceremony held this Saturday virtually from Vancouver, Canada.

"I am proud to receive that Doctorate, alongside those luminaries of culture," the author of iconic songs such as Candil de Nieve, Nítida fe, and Cabalgando con Fidel told the Cuban News Agency.

Recognized for a body of work closely linked to national and Latin American identity, Torres received a distinction that honors careers committed to artistic creation, the promotion of humanist values, and the strengthening of cultural ties among peoples.

The troubadour's presence stood out within the representation of the island nation, which also included Nelson Amey Aragón Martínez from Ciego de Ávila, president of the Chair of Peasant and Traditional Storytelling and director of the CuentArriba Socio-Cultural Project; and the prominent journalist Onelia Chaveco Chaveco, chief correspondent of the Cuban News Agency in Cienfuegos.

Also attending were researchers Adys Cupull and Froilán González, and poet Waldo Leyva Portal, all exponents of a broad diversity of contributions to the culture and social sciences of the Caribbean nation.

The 2026 edition brought together personalities from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Italy, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, with the purpose of recognizing relevant contributions in different manifestations of cultural and social endeavor.

The I'itoi Labyrinth, popularly known as "The Man in the Labyrinth," sacred emblem of the Tohono O'odham Nation and ancestral guardian of the Sonoran Desert, symbol of the path each human being travels toward their own center, was chosen as the official image of this edition.

With more than 30 years of work, an active presence in 23 countries, and a latent presence in more than 60, the Sur Cultural Movement responds, according to its own manifesto, "to the creative need to sow seeds for cultural change with mutual support, in fervent humanism, and in the projection of the echoes of everyone's song."

Under the motto "Let us make humanity more human," the degree and diploma ceremony connected participants from different time zones and reaffirmed the purpose of strengthening networks of cooperation and dialogue among creators, academics, and cultural promoters from different countries.