The earliest traces of later literature date from the discovery of the island and the beginning of the Spanish conquest to the writing of the work “Mirror of Patience” in 1608. The Diary of Christopher Columbus and the chronicles of the Conquest of the Indies contain the first references to the Cuban landscape, and during the 16th century, modest attempts were made to spread the Spanish language and education. Although the cultural life of the colony was still incipient, it is assumed that there were scholars of fine arts among intellectuals and professors, but no text dating from these years has survived to this day.

During the period between 1608 and the end of Spanish colonization in 1898, the process of nationalization crystallized, and with it, the development of a literature with a truly national imprint. The literary currents that followed or overlapped worldwide—primarily Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and early Modernism—are imbued by our authors with a Creole character, expressed in the praise of vernacular nature and taking on pro-independence nuances. This aspect reaches its climax during the period of struggle that begins in 1868, with an apparent interruption from 1878 to 1895, and which puts an end to Spanish domination.

Many researchers define the period of its initial manifestations from the conquest to 1790. The work “Mirror of Patience” constitutes the first literary work in Cuba, an example of epic poetry that reflects the rise of filibusterism. Lyric poetry produced some minor works that did not achieve transcendence, especially verses of circumstance, imbued with a certain culteranism that did not correspond to the underlying conceptual simplicity and at the same time distanced them from the popular. The Capture of Havana by the English in 1762 gave rise to some of these verses. The first traces of the décima also appeared during this period, but they did not achieve notoriety. The theater had few exponents, among which the foundational work “El Príncipe jardinero y fingido Cloridano” by Santiago Pita stands out.

The beginnings of literary history date back to the 17th and 18th centuries, with names such as Pedro Agustín Morell de Santa Cruz and José Martín Félix de Arrate, who also devoted himself to poetic composition. Sacred oratory developed in the 18th century and reached its peak within the genre, but it represented an expression of the ruling class’s growing division between Creoles and peninsulars.

The founding of the University of Havana (University Hill, Vedado, Havana City) in 1721 and the establishment of the printing press in 1723 contributed to the development of education and culture in general, and the printing press specifically represented a significant boost to the creation and dissemination of literature. Overall, this period saw the emergence of an island sensibility distinct from that of the metropolis, and a literary heritage was formed that would feed later authors and who achieved greater aesthetic quality in their works.