Favio Castán (1959-2012)
Born Fidel Diaz Castán in January 27, 1959 to Dolores Castán and Pedro Diaz Ojeda, his a family was highly involved in the Cuban military and state security. Favio would embark on a path that would lead him to study law at Moscow university in 1983 graduating with all honors and highest of his class earning him the highest award given by the university of golden medal.
He would work as an agent in the State Security of Cuba, or MININT (Ministerio del Interior) reaching a rank of Captain. Here he would work until 1993 when certain disagreements of ideas and opinions would derail the relationship. This was during a tense time in Cuban history (due to the fall of the Soviet Union) and after the famous televised trial and subsequent execution of some of Cuba’s top generals at the time, which is widely known to have been orchestrated by Fidel Castro. Castán would later write a poem to Gn. Ochoa posthumously.
Castán would be sent home under surveillance and house arrest followed by being blacklisted, meaning no workplace would hire him after receiving a call from MININT.
Favio would express himself via his writing in various publications including the following:
“What the Old Man Couldn’t Tell” stories 1993. Cuba
“Really Serious, Nearly Joking” poetry 1993. Mexico
“Among Tales” literature for children 1994. Cuba
“Speech, Marginality and Dreams” poetry 1995. Cuba
“We Are Innocents” short stories 1997. Cuba
Still Castán knew if he wanted to have earnings he would have to try his luck with art. He spoke Spanish, English and Russian and had developed a sharp tongue over the years and this would allow him to further expand and connect to his audience. He needed to first work on his style.
It wasn’t until he met fellow Cuban artist Rafael Arzuaga where he started to develop his uniqueness in the canvas. A “homage to Chagal” he called it. With his own colors and playful inking. Arzuaga would later write this about Castán.
“The pictorial art of Favio Castan is linked with the elements of the popular and enhanced with a reflective and poetic point of view of the reality, expressed with so rhetorical plasticity in a wise language between the painter who writes poetry and the poet who paints. This creative duality, trends to achieve the mixture of an infinite metalanguage, where the verb and the image are brought together to express the epical speech of our surrounding. I’m proud of been Favio Castan friend because he is a wise and full of passion artist.”
-Rafael Arzuaga, Artist
