MIAMI.- Juan Manuel Salvatwho founded the bookshop Universal Editions in Miami In 1965, he died in Miami at the age of 84. The unfortunate news was confirmed to the DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS editorial staff by sources close to Salvat.
Born on March 27, 1940, in Sagua la Grande, Villa Clara, in the central region of Cuba, Juan Manuel Salvat Roque was part of the first exiles who settled in the United States after Fidel Castro came to power.
Son of Manuel Salvat Martínez and Consuelo Roque Olivé, he grew up in a small grocery store in Cuba, where he helped his father deliver food, rice, beans and sugar, Salvat commented in an interview with DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS six years ago.
As a young man, he decided to study Law at the San Juan Bautista de la Salle University, in Cuba; However, he only finished the first year and part of the second, since in 1959 he enrolled at the University of Havana, a place he had to leave due to his leadership in the Federation of University Students (FEU) and anti-communist stance to date.
From Guantanamo to Miami
“They expelled us, plotted our arrest and forced us to request asylum at the Brazilian Embassy. Then, convinced of the betrayal of the freedoms of the Castro government, we had created the Student Revolutionary Directorate (DRE), following the tradition of fighting for the freedom of students in other dictatorial times in Cuba. The motto of the DRE would be “José Antonio Echeverría, with your ideas in motion,” Salvat recalled in an interview published in nagarimagazine.com.
In 1961, after being detained for a time in Cuba, he organized his forced departure from Cuba through the Guantanamo Naval Base.
“The DRE’s colleague, Julio Hernández Rojo, organized the trip. In July 1961 I managed, with help, to jump over the fence. The Base had already been notified and a Marine Jeep came to pick me up because there were mines and I couldn’t move until they arrived. A few days later, together with Manuel Guillot and Rafael Quintero, they took us by plane to Key West, and from there to Miami where my parents, brothers, my girlfriend and then were already there. wife, Marta Ortiz Iturmendi, the great love of my life,” Salvat said in said interview.
Keeping the culture and history of Cuba alive through literature
Already settled in Miami, he founded the Ediciones Universal bookstore on the famous Calle Ocho in 1965.
“So, Miami was not what it is today, nor were Cubans the majority, but there was a market, a very great concern to read in Spanish and read books related to Cuba. We were part of an exile that thought about returning to the island and that wanted to be closer to Cuba, through books,” Salvat told DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS exclusively.
“My first six years of exile were practically dedicated to supporting the fight against Castro. Then I thought that I could do more if I tried to keep alive the culture and history of Cuba, which the Cuban regime was already beginning to deny on the island, and I decided to promote books, publish them and sell them,” recalled Salvat, who then, at 25 years and with few dollars in his pocket, he produced a small catalog of books, which he distributed mostly among friends.
