: In 1961, Guillén was proclaimed the National Poet of Cuba , recognized for his ability to weave diverse cultural traditions into a cohesive national narrative. English Translation & Availability

To fully appreciate the English translation, one must understand the thematic layers that define the poem: The Erasure of African Ancestry

This is a metaphor for potential. The green corn has not yet matured; similarly, the African identity in Cuba had not yet "popped" into full consciousness before slavery crushed it.

Guillén is of French and Spanish origin. In English, his last name can be translated as:

This is the central conflict of "El Apellido." The poem is not about a simple name; it is about —the African surname that was never recorded, erased by history, or "dissolved in inmemorial ink," as Guillén writes. The poet desperately searches for his "other surname," the bloody and captured name that came from that enormous land and crossed the sea in chains. This search is not for a piece of paper, but for a complete, unbroken identity.

One of the most moving stanzas involves the poet seeking his authentic name in the natural world and in history:

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Look at the line: "with a branding iron in hand / with an iron on the nape of their necks." Enslaved people were literally branded like cattle. Guillén argues that the branding iron replaced the surname. The slave owner’s last name (Guillén, López, Fernández) was the brand. The true African name was the one burned away.

Published in the landmark anthology Man-making Words: Selected Poems of Nicolás Guillén (1972), this version is highly regarded for preserving the political urgency and emotional gravity of the original Spanish text. It renders the opening lines with stark clarity:

To understand "El apellido," one must understand the history of slavery in the Caribbean. When enslaved Africans were brought to Cuba, Spanish colonizers stripped them of their original names. They were forcibly baptized and given the Spanish surnames of their masters.

Decades after its publication, "El Apellido" resonates deeply within global conversations surrounding post-colonialism, systemic racism, and genealogy. For many descendants of the transatlantic slave trade, tracing a family tree ends abruptly at a bill of sale or a plantation ledger. Guillén’s elegy gives a voice to that specific, profound generational grief, transforming a personal search for a surname into a universal anthem of resilience and reclamation.

: Guillén begins by mentioning school lists and official documents. This represents how institutions formalize a "stolen" identity.