A tribute, of the 100 deserved by Dr. Juan Felipe Benemelis.

By Irma E. Sanchez & ARTahouse Editorial

?Juan Felipe Benemelis is a brilliant figure in various branches of human thought and activity. He has written more than 74 books and hundreds of essays. His themes run through politics, terrorism, espionage, history, art, science, poetry, racial, and women's issues, ethnography, and philosophy, the subject of his most recent collection. He is a literary and political critic. He is also a refined poet, a profound mathematician, and physicist, and an excellent painter with hundreds of paintings and exhibitions in progress. Taking into account the words of the anthropologist Maria Iliana Faguaga – He is astonishing, a rare Renaissance personality.

Benemelis is a magnificent writer, but he is also a great visionary endowed with an extraordinary power of analysis and synthesis. He is the most prolific and encyclopedic author, at least, in the Hispanic Culture. Many critics have argued, not only because of the breadth of his work that spans various disciplines, or the depth of his analysis of the global context of our time but also because of his philosophical views on the human and civilization. Extraordinarily vast, deep, and illuminating is the analysis of the global context of our time that denotes his philosophy. His literature is primarily essays, but he has dabbled in the novel and poetry.

Benemelis was born in Manzanillo, Cuba, in 1942. He was a brilliant student from an early age, with a restless intellect, a great memory, and a hunger for the most varied knowledge.

He is the second of four children, of a Cuban family, his father, a virtuoso guitarist, appreciated and well known in the musical world of the oriental zone?of Cuba’s; his mother, a descendant of mambises (warriors for Cuba’s Independence from Spain) of the Varona lineage. He was an outstanding student from an early age; his father taught him harmony, sol-fa, and Morse code; his first studies were at the school of arts and crafts, and electricity in Santiago de Cuba.

He managed to finish three university degrees: Bachelor of Business Administration from the Havana Business University in 1959, Master in International Law in 1962, and Doctorate in History from the University of Havana, with a final thesis about the French Revolution.

He dominates chess like a Great Master, a very interesting story that few know. ?Juan in 1967 won the National Chess Match for workers. But he was excluded from the national team, and his right to obtain ? Great Master (ELO) scores were denied. The Czech Grand Master Ludek Pachman invited him to a tournament in Italy, which the government in the person of José Luis Barrera, President of the Cuban Chess Federation at the time, did not allow him to attend.

He also wrote books in Cuba that were never published. He won the National Prize of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) in 1978, but it was marginalized, rejected, withdrawn by the Minister of Culture Armando Hart, with the non-return of the only manuscript that possessed of the book “Africa a historical interpretation”.

Juan first and foremost is a historian. His investigative and analytical spirit is developed powerfully in history. His career as a historian begins with a piece of knowledge, even a practical one, of Africa.

His knowledge and skills led him to become a diplomat on the African continent and he operated extensively on it and in the Middle East. As a diplomat in the 1960s, he participated in the implementation of socialism in African countries, which was a great failure, also in the Middle East.

He met personalities such as Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Naser, Julius Nyerere, Houari Boumediene, and Jonas Savimbi. He served as an advisor to Yemeni President Salem Robaya Ali from 1976 to 1978.

Among his masterpieces, you can find an extensive History of Africa, an in-depth study of the Qur'an and Islamic philosophy, a profound essay on the roots of Islamic terrorism, and an encompassing study of the 33 transitions that took place in the former Soviet bloc. Benemelis is considered an expert on Islamic culture, Africa, international politics, and terrorism.

In 1968, he won the National History Prize with his essay "Ignacio Agramonte el Bayardo". He was a professor of African history at the University of Havana in 1970, and 1971.

His African History is worth international recognition from the Ibadan University in Nigeria which highlights Juan F. Benemelis in 2014 as the main, principal foreign historian of Africa.

Prof. E. Ifabiyi Alare, International President of “The Venerable Sacred Order of Truth Inc.” expressed about Juan: The illustrious Juan Benemelis, he is much more than an intellectual or an excellent historian, he is much more than a renowned painter, etc. Benemelis has two recognitions far superior to everything previously mentioned, we are facing a Pride of Cuba, and more than that, we have had the opportunity and the privilege of meeting an Enlightened One of this diverse and turbulent, global time that we have had to live. Benemelis is a human being of global stature.

The painter Benemelis, initially made use of everything he could paint: pencil, Chinese ink pens, charcoal, brushes... with such passion he achieved great lavishness and craft in drawing and oil painting. He always filled the spaces with sketches, oils, pens; culminating in works, such as his Othello, the Coronation of the Queen, the Flight of the Tsarina, the canvas painted for the Havana University.

Among his challenges, he managed to make a huge exhibition of oil paintings of his authorship with more than 40 works at the University of Havana in 1969.

It is extremely important to note that his pictorial work, his books published in Cuba, his awards, his UNEAC award, his university degrees, and every vestige of his existence have been intentionally destroyed, disappeared, annulled in the hostile Cuba of the last 62 years.

Juan was a diplomat in African and Middle Eastern countries, was a businessman, a historian, and a consultant. He is a philosopher, an analyst, and critic of international politics, an ethnologist, and a historian.

He is a writer with more than 74 published titles in history, philosophy, politics, and science.

He is a deep connoisseur of the radio, the locution, and the history of baseball in Cuba and the USA.

He immigrated to the United States in 1980.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, he was a foreign policy consultant for the intelligence community in Washington.

1985-1994: - Member of the Jamestown Foundation, Washington, D.C. (A Soviet Bloc High-defectors sponsor organization).

1993: - Visiting Professor at William Patterson College, New Jersey. September through December, he taught Seminars concerning Africa and the Middle East.

1990-1993: - Director of the Puerto Rico magazine "LA CRONICA".

1999: - Research Fellowship. University of Houston, Texas. The US Hispanic Literary Heritage involved him in several major research projects, fact-finding missions, and international conferences.

He participated as a historical advisor in two films by Orlando Jiménez Leal.

His historical and literary work has recently been exalted in Sao Paulo, Brazil where Maria Ileana Faguaga published “Orbita de Juan Benemelis” as international recognition of his work.

Inspiring are his words about Juan: “His vast and rich literature already grants this author a privileged place in the national historiography and of this continent, of all times. And, likewise, it not infrequently leaves him in a position of intellectual isolation. The results of his many concerns are monumental works, articles, essays and he surprises us with his poetry. Is there more to discover about him? I'm afraid so. That at any moment will surprise us with more. It's just waiting, expectant because something else can give us... at any time”. Faguaga was absolutely right.

It is important to note that most of Juan's written books are in Spanish, a language in which many topics, especially scientific ones, there is not much up-to-date literature. We also see how publications on current political issues have been written in English and Spanish. Many of his titles can be found on Amazon and our work has begun with the aim that sold-out editions, from previous runs, can be purchased online.

When we can review a list of his publications from 1976 to the present, it impresses and presents us with the reality of reading this important Cuban author. To read Benemelis not only as a tribute but as a way to acquire valuable knowledge about the reality that surrounds us: The current status of it stands out, the issues that interest today's citizens, with a special emphasis on the analysis of historical and political processes.

His mastery of mathematics leads him to write about the philosophy of this science. "Philosophy of Mathematics" shows us how such a complex book can be masterfully presented, with a scholarly language of science, and at the same time accessible to the general public. Mathematics may be an exact science and humans try to discover what they do not know with their questions; while Benemelis suggests that the true art is to discover what one is capable of knowing, inviting the reader to venture into the science of becoming assaulting objectivity.

From the absolute mathematical to the fractal mathematics, Benemelis takes us on a walk through history with the precursors of one of the most creative resources of the human being. Stop by this gem of literature and philosophy.

The brilliant introduction of the book brings us closer to the philosopher, the teacher, unveiling the secrets of his success. Then it induces us to the desire to know beyond the personal needs of the individual. It continues showing us the winding paths of philosophy, with such structural and methodological simplicity that we understand, that we are all capable of understanding, not only a mathematical formula but the answers to the essential mysteries.

Currently, Benemelis and our ARTahouse Editorial are involved in the publication of a masterful series of philosophy books. This will have 10 books: Philosophy El Tiempo Eje (The axis time), Mathematics, Sciences, Life, Arts, History, Metaphysics & the Esoteric, Philosophy and Religion, Philosophy of the inexplicable and Benemelis' Magister Integratio.

The first four can already be purchased on Amazon (Spanish). His 74 books are not on Amazon. Many of his published books are sold-out, so if you find them take into account that they are unicorns.

Prestigious intellectual figures such as historians Hugh Thomas, Brian Crozier, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Nobel laureates Wole Zoyinka and Milan Kundera, Josef Bodansky, and Prof. E. Ifabiyi Alare, International President of The Venerable Sacred Order of Truth Inc. have written favorably highlighting the figure and knowledge of Benemelis.

Also figures from our world in exile such as Maurice Ferre, the novelist and Babalao, Nicolas Manduley, the writer and poet Amaury González Reyes, the anthropologist María I. Faguaga Iglesias., Dr. Antonio Arencibia, Jorge A. Pomar, Adolfo Rivero Caro , Dr. Moisés Asís, Cuban-American scientist, lawyer and writer, Emilio Ichikawa, Armando A?el, Miguel Iturria Savón, Alberto Muller, Lucia Beltrán Benemelis, Alberto Abreu, Cuban writer, Tania Diaz Castro, Jesus Rosado, art critic, Virgilio Calvo, journalist and writer, the poet Manuel Vazquez Portal, Luis de la Paz, and Diego Trinidad.

Tania Díaz Castro tells us in her article: –The essential book of Benemelis. HAVANA, Cuba (www.cubanet.org) "If there is a book that explains in great detail what has happened in Cuba since 1959, it is" The secret wars of Fidel Castro ", by Juan Benemelis."

She continued: The second time I read the book – I know that my friends and fellow journalists have also read it more than once. Juan Benemelis, this Cuban exile born in Manzanillo 64 years ago, graduated in Diplomatic and Consular Law at the University of Havana and UNEAC Prize in 1978 with historical research on the African continent, is the author of other books that also lead us wisely from the hand through the impenetrable, unusual and confused cobweb of Cuban Castro’s, to discover it as it is. Valor has Juan Benemelis and a million good friends in his homeland.

Juan Benemelis has written a surprising book, Emilio Ichikawa told us: Paradigms and Borders No logic in the Chaos. (Editorial Plaza Mayor, Puerto Rico, 2003). I qualify it in this way because it stands out, because of the relationship that the author establishes with the subject, and because of the theoretical level at which it raises it, from other published titles.

He had taught seminars in:

? School of the Americas, Fort Benning, Georgia. Cuba-Soviet linkage in Africa. (1986)

? Center of Strategic and International Studies. Georgetown University. Cuban Internationalism. (1986)

?Tufts University. Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Oral Tradition Project. Cuba in Africa. (1987)

? Department of Defense. Pentagon: The Cuban Intelligence Directorate. (1987)

? The University of Padua. Italy. Cuban Foreign Policy’s transgression of International Law. (1990).

? Kean College. New Jersey. Cuba and the 5th Centenary of America’s Discovery. (Spring 1993)

Benemelis, is a dazzling color palette, a blinding palette, very original and provocative. In his painting, there is a mastery of form and space, passionate and overwhelming, in a visual exercise that ends in existential iconographies.

The center of his message is summarized in the chromatic factors and the main role of the presence of the female figure.

In recent years Juan has taken up painting professionally. He had participated in countless group exhibitions sponsored by the Milander Center of Hialeah.

He had made: "Unshaken" 2016, the three Benemelis brothers, Hernán Gamboa Gallery; “Benemelis Color Calor” 2019, The Alternative Space Bunker; "Wild and Colorful" 2019, Optimus Gallery; The one-man show “NostreDames” 2019, Hernán Gamboa Gallery.

His "Philosophy of Life" expresses to us that the generation of life is chaotic, non-linear; it does not comply with the precepts of Darwinism and its natural selection. Paleontologists, archaeologists, and philosophers have imposed on us a theoretical variant of the evolution of life that is not true. In anthropology, fraud has been committed, conclusions have been forced and the time has come to dismantle the fallacy. A great conclusion is raised by Benemelis: The missing link does not exist. He also considers it necessary to dismiss the conclusions based on false archaeological findings and tending to manipulate human thought. The philosophy of life if we begin to doubt, can lead us to understand how feasible other theories are.

The book takes us through the history of our Earth. It's exalting the aspects to consider in the analysis that life is changing as perishable energy. The Geological Ages are drawn with the force of words, leading us to know, or glimpse: the geological divisions, the terrestrial vertebrates, the great Ice Age, until ending in the real deluge of prehistory.

Benemelis's skills as a historian become clear when he takes us from history to science, then to religion, continuing with the scientific knowledge of our time, and finishing with an industrial revolution that gave way to new ideas for a harmonious evolution. Although outdated ideas persist in paleontology, evidence is making its way with genetics in the broadest concept. Fantastic walk through life that culminates in the treatment of thought from its semiotic function and Benemelis's sociological vision.

Blessed are you Juan Felipe Benemelis because, through your word, we can see the world and our life differently. Thank you for the gifts you give and pour out, for everyone who wants to receive them. Thank you for your presence. Thank you all for listening.