Biography

Raúl Mesa was born in Cárdenas, Matanzas Province, on August 25, 1943. His primary education was in the Colegio Presbiteriano La Progresiva until his family moved to Havana where he finished the sixth grade inthe Instituto Edison. While he was in primary school he and his family took a short trip to Miami. His secondary education was in the Instituto de la Víbora. He entered the University of Havana to study natural sciences, as well as English and French, and graduated in 1966 with a grave average of 97.5%.
His teaching career began in 1961 as a professor of biology in secondary school. In 1964 he began teaching in the University of Havana in the Division of Medical Science and at the same time continued his appointments in several secondary schools. In 1966 he was named to a chair in biological scienes at the University of Havana. For more than thirty years he has been a professor at his alma mater. His teaching covers the entire filed of biology including special post-graduate courses for medical doctors and other professionals.
In addition to his many scientific publications, Mesa began to writer poetry years ago. He represents a literary generation that came of age in the last half of the twentieth century. His poetry is introspective and recounts the struggles his generation has had to contend with throughout the world in the face of dramatic social, economic and political changes.
In April of 1996 Mesa was a visiting lecturer at Texas Tech University in Lubbock where he read excerpts from his poetry and spoke about Cuban literary figures and their writings. He returned to the United States in 1998 and lectured at six universities in Texas, the University of Alabama, and several universities and institutes in North Carolina and Washington D.C. He owns one of the largest private libraries in Cuba.