Matanzas storytelling event honors Francisco López Sacha with workshops and readings

The classrooms and reading rooms around Matanzas turned Francisco López Sacha’s memory into a working literary lab, not a formal tribute. The Encuentro de Narradores Contar con Sacha brought together writers from Havana and Matanzas for a three-day program built around theory panels, public readings, narrative workshops, book presentations and reflection sessions, with the Ministry of Culture underscoring its importance.

The event ran through May 22 and made its center of gravity clear: López Sacha’s legacy was being carried forward through practice. A Thursday Peña del Maíz regado brought readings aimed at children and young people, while the workshop La buena pipa focused on narrative technique at the Matanzas UNEAC house. The mix of formats gave the gathering the feel of a literary workshop in motion, where memory, criticism and creation all shared the same table.

That emphasis on active storytelling matched the weight of the writer being honored. Francisco López Sacha died in Havana on February 16, 2025, at 74. Born in Manzanillo on February 28, 1950, he was described as a prolific narrator, essayist, critic and professor of art. His death drew public condolences from Culture Minister Alpidio Alonso and President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and he had been among the honorees at the 32nd Havana International Book Fair in 2024.

The Matanzas program also showed how widely his work continues to move through Cuban literary life. UNEAC, the Gener y del Monte Public Library, Ediciones Aldabón and the Museo Farmacéutico Ernesto Triolet all backed the encounter, a lineup that placed a single writer at the center of several cultural institutions at once. That institutional spread reflected more than commemoration. It pointed to an ongoing effort to keep his ideas in circulation through criticism, mentoring and public reading.

The closing Friday program leaned into that same energy. Organizers set a collective reading of Dorado mundo, followed by the award ceremony for the short-story contest El que va con la luz at the Museo Farmacéutico Ernesto Triolet, with pianist Elvira Santiago on the bill. The final scene in Matanzas was not a wreath-laying or a speech of farewell. It was a room of readers, writers and younger voices still trying out the language López Sacha helped make possible.