Lourdes Gomez-Franca

Lourdes Gómez Franca (February 15, 1933 – October 16, 2017), better known simply as Lourdes, was a Cuban-American painter and poet who was active in Cuba and the United States. Her work was significant in Miami and Cuban art communities of the later Twentieth Century and covered by many critics and scholars.

Life

Early years

Lourdes was born in Havana in 1933. Her family was well-established in Cuba and she was raised in Havana's wealthy Vedado neighborhood of stately homes. Her grandfather was Cuban leader Porfirio Franca (born 1878), a lawyer, banker, and economist who was a member of Cuba's Pentarchy of 1933.

Her early life, however, was marked by repeated tragedy that proved to be highly formative to her life and artistic career. One of her non-religious painting series covered were domestic depictions of her grandfather's home, showing its high ceiling, marble floors, and curving grand staircase. Despite this, she wanted to expand her audience and be known outside of Cuba, as well as learn new skills. She then went to Paris in 1957 at the age of 24 and spent several months there. Lourdes painted portraits of the Permuy family and Permuy was a frequent dealer of her artwork for much of her career. Pablo Cano also became a key friend and artistic collaborator. In addition to introducing Greene to Lourdes, the two worked together on her last two poetry collections published in her lifetime. Cano, thirty years her junior and now better known for his sculptural work, provided the illustrations to each poem in a style that was strongly reminiscent of Lourdes' own, reflecting her influence on him as a mentor. He also wrote the foreword for her 1989 book The Thorns Are Green My Friend, a poetry collection written primarily during one of her hospitalizations. In it, he said of Victor Manuel and Enriquez "That these two notoriously acerbic and difficult men should have found something to praise in Lourdes is telling." He also went on to describe Gomez Franca as "an undiscovered Treasure of Miami."

She has also been discussed in several books by noted Cuban art historians, such as Cuban-American Literature and Art: Negotiating Identities (by Isabel Alvarez Borland and Lynette M. F. Bosch, 2009), Cuban-American Art in Miami: Exile, Identity and the Neo-Baroque (Lynette M. F. Bosch, 2004), Memoria : Cuban art of the 20th century (by José Veigas, Cristina Vives, Adolfo V Nodal, Valia Garzón, and Dannys Montes de Oca; 2009) and Paradise Lost or Gained: The Literature of Hispanic Exile (by Fernando Alegria and Jorge Ruffinelli, 1990). Lourdes was also featured on the 1993 Art Now Gallery Guide: National & international (Volume 12, Issues 7-8) and 1990 edition of Arts Magazine (Volume 65, Issues 1-4).

Her work is included in the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum as well as several prominent collections of Cuban art, including the Permuy and Pinedo collections.