Jorge Tallet's Obituary
Jorge Antonio Tallet beloved husband, father, and man of letters died June 25, 2023 in Miami, FL. He was 95 when he died. He was born in Havana, Cuba on February 3, 1928 to Judith Martinez Villena and Jose Zacharias Tallet Duarte. His father was a journalist and a nationally known figure in contemporary poetry in Cuba.
Jorge Tallet worked as columnist for the newspaper El Mundo in the 1950s. He earned a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Havana in 1953. Having spoken out against the Batista regime, he emigrated to the USA in 1956 and worked for the Associated Press in New York. He married Elena Villazon Hernandez in 1958, and they lived together in Greenwich Village. With the advent of the Castro government, he returned to Cuba in 1959 to be the head of the Cultural Department of the Cuban Foreign Ministry. Due to changes in the political environment in Cuba he resigned his position in September, 1960 and spoke out against the government. He fled to the United States in 1961 with his wife and infant son Julio. While living in New York, his daughter Lourdes Maria was born.
He worked as a news editor at various news services starting at Foreign News Service from 1961 to 1964, a news service made up of political ex-patriots. He also worked at United Press international, Editorial Americano, and finally for 14 years at the Miami Herald where he helped pioneer computer-based copy editing and type setting.
He was a voracious reader with an insatiable curiosity and an encyclopedic breadth of knowledge. He translated his father’s poems into English. He wrote many scholarly papers about politics. His principal love was philosophy, especially the nature of knowing to which he applied a logical construct. He published papers on philosophy as well as various books, most notably The Absolute Being (1955) and The Possible Universe (1997). He was an instructor in Philosophy for the State University of New York.
He was committed to his family whom he loved and nurtured. He was responsible for allowing many family members to emigrate from Cuba to the United States. He is survived by his wife Elena Villazon Tallet, his children Julio Tallet of Weston, FL and Lourdes Maria Tallet of North Hampton, MA, his granddaughter Christine Maria Tallet of Weston, FL, his sister Leticia Forbes of Miami, FL, and his sister-in-law Ana Maria Villazon of Miami, FL. These few words do not do justice to the rich life he led that touched so many.
There will be a vigil at Van Orsdel Funeral home at 11220 N. Kendall Drive, Miami, FL 33176 on Friday, June 30, 2023 at 10:30 AM. It will be followed by Catholic Mass at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church 5400 SW 102nd Ave, Miami, FL 33165 at 1:00 PM.
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