Jesus Castellanos

Jesús Castellanos y Villageliú (August 8, 1878 – May 29, 1912) was a Cuban writer, journalist, critic, caricaturist and lawyer born in Havana, Cuba.

Castellanos was the son of Dr. Manuel Sabás Castellanos y Arango and Mercedes Villageliú e Irola, both Cuban born. His father had attended the University of Paris where he obtained a Medical degree in 1868. A year later he certified said degree in Spain and on his return to Cuba he obtained a PhD in Sciences in 1881, and a second PhD in Pharmacy in 1889, both from the University of Havana. He was honourable member of the Academia de Ciencias Médicas, Físicas y Naturales de La Habana. He was a physician, researcher and also taught physics at the University of Havana. He was a 33rd-degree Mason and a linguist with a good grasp of French, Italian, English, and German. The ancestors of Jesús Castellanos maintained that his maternal grandmother, Concepción Irola y Ponce de León, was a descendant of the Spanish conquistador, Juan Ponce de León.

Jesús Castellanos was born on Galiano Street in Havana at the home of his maternal grandparents. He was the third of eight children. From early childhood Jesús was interested in drawing and sketching as well as literature. Not only did he show an early fondness for the classic Spanish authors, but also for modern writers, particularly Victor Hugo and Jules Verne.

In 1893, Jesús entered the University of Havana, first matriculating in the School of Philosophy and Letters, but soon thereafter changing to the School of Law. The following year he again changed course, this time entering the School of Engineering. It was in a student paper named El Habanero that Castellanos, when he was only sixteen years old, published his first literary efforts, almost all of which were in verse. Not, however, in the field of poetry was he to become one of Cuba’s literary leaders, but rather in prose fiction, notably the short story and the novel.

In 1896, his parents, fearing his involvement in the bloody and ever increasing conflict in Cuba's war of independence from Spain, decided to send him to Mexico to live with an uncle, Pedro Calvo. Castellanos became a fervent supporter of the societies in Mexico that were working for the independence of Cuba.

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