Rafael Conte

Born in Marianao, Havana, on January 4, 1877, Rafael Conte Mayolino became one of Cuba’s best-known early 20th-century journalists. Sources describe him as remarkably versatile: a war correspondent, humorist, historian, dramatist, and polyglot whose reporting took him far beyond Cuba.

He wrote for publications including El Fígaro, Cuba Contemporánea, and Diario de la Marina, and he reported from major international conflicts, including the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. That global experience seems to have shaped the energetic, wide-angle style readers find in his work.

Conte is also remembered as the co-author, with José M. Capmany, of Guerra de razas (Negros contra Blancos en Cuba), and library records identify him as living from 1877 to 1930. Even in brief biographical sketches, he comes across as a writer drawn to big events, urgent questions, and the challenge of explaining them to a broad public.