Fayad Jamis, Mexican-born Cuban poet, journalist, diplomat, painter, and book artist, was born in Zacatecas, the son of a Cuban father of Lebanese heritage and a Mexican mother, in 1930. He moved with his family to Cuba in 1936 and lived in various parts of the island until settling in Havana around the 1940s. Jamis first received artistic training at the traditional San Alexandro Academy, but went on a different path to become a well-known abstract painter. In 1953, he joined the Grupo de los Once, or Group of Eleven, which embodied the modernist aesthetic values of a new generation of Cuban painters.

In 1954, Fayad Jamis went to Paris and, two years later, attended the School of High Studies of La Sorbonne. He exhibited together with sculptor Agustín Cárdenas and had his first solo show in France sponsored by the surrealist writer André Breton. Jamis relocated to Cuba in 1959 where he taught painting at the National School of Art of Cubanacán, directed the Literature Section of the UNEAC (Unión de Escritores e Artistas de Cuba), published various books, and wrote articles for publications such as the Ediciones La Tertulia, Lunes de Revolución, La Gaceta de Cuba, Orígenes, Ciclón, and the Sunday supplement Hoy. Fayad Jamis also served as Cultural Counsel at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico for eleven years.

In 1962, Fayad Jamis was the recipient of the Casa de las Américas prize for his book Por Esta Libertad. His paintings can be seen today at the National Fine Arts Museum in Havana, and more of his artistic work integrates several private and institutional collections both in Cuba and abroad. Fayad Jamis often used the pseudonyms Fernando Moro, Onirio Estrada or the initials F.J.N. He died in 1988.

Bibliography:

• Brújula (1949)
• Los párpados y el polvo (1954)
• Alumbran. Seco sábado (1954)
• Vagabundo del alba (1959)
• Cuatro poemas en China (1961)
• Los puentes (1962)
• Por esta libertad (1962)
• La victoria de Playa Girón (1964)
• Cuerpos (Antología, 1966)
• Abrí la verja de hierro (1973)
• La Pedrada. Selección poética (1951-1973)
• Historia de un hombre (1995; posthumous)