Epistolary centon

Domingo del Monte was a Cuban writer and literary critic. His work Centón epistolario (1823-1857), collects the correspondence received throughout his life and ordered by himself. These letters offer essential data on the Cuban political and literary history of the years 1822-1843. Theyconstitute one of the most exceptional, original and useful works of Cuban intellectual history.
El Centón was published in seven volumes between 1923 and 1957 by the Academy of Cuban History. It brings together nearly 2,000 letters from personalities from different parts of the world. Domingo Figarola-Caneda was in charge of the edition (he published the first three volumes), with the name of Centón Epistolario de Domingo del Monte.
Domingo del Monte was part of the group of creators of the Cuban Literary Academy and director of the Revista Bimestre de la Isla de Cuba (1831-1843). In it he published a small part of his extensive literary production.
He was also editor of La Moda o Recreo semanal del bello sexo in 1829 and El puntero literario, in 1830. He also joined the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, being Secretary of the Literature Section in 1830.
Del Monte was more a man who enjoyed and promoted culture than a dreamer who seeks transcendence in his work as an author. However, this tendency had him as a cultural promoter of an entire generation of Cuban writers. This was recognized.

• Jose Antonio Saco,
• Rafael María Mendive,
• José Jacinto Milanés,
• Antonio Bachiller y Morales,
• Félix Varela and, in synthetic phrase
• and José Martí

who said he was: “the most real and useful Cuban of his time.”