José Vilalta Saavedra

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Statue of José Martí in Parque Central, Havana, sculpted by Vilalta Saavedra in 1905.

José Vilalta Saavedra (1865-1912)^[1] is a Cuban sculptor. One of the first native Cuban sculptors, Vilalta was born in Havana, trained in Carrara and worked in Cienfuegos.^[2]

Vilarta created several important Cuban monuments and statues, including the statue of José Marti located in Havana's Parque Central (Central Park) and the monument to Cuban engineer Francisco de Albear y Lara. Vilalta completed the Albear statue in Florence, Italy in 1893. The sculptor won a national competition to create a memorial to eight Cuban medical students executed in 1871 by Spanish colonial troops. It was completed in 1889, and it was the first monument made in Cuba by a Cuban artist.^[2]

The main gate of Colon Cemetery in Havana. The Virtues atop the gate were sculpted by Vilalta.

In Havana's Necropolis Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus Cemetery), Vilalta made the sculptures of the Virtues above the main cemetery entrance and the religious relief sculptures around the cemetery walls. Vilalta also created the monument at the most visited place in Necropolis Colon, the grave of Amelia Goyri de la Hoz, a woman known as "La Milagrosa" ("The Miraculous Woman" or "The Miraculous One").^[1] An upper-class woman, she died in childbirth in 1901 at age 23, and her stillborn son was placed at her feet when she was buried.^[3] According to legend, when the grave was opened years later, her corpse was intact – a sign of holiness – and her son was nestled in her arms. Amelia is considered by many to be Cuba's unofficial saint.^[4] Cubans come to her grave every day to ask for children or love affairs.^[3] Vilalta carved the sculpture out of one piece of Carrara marble, and he finished the work in 1914.