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The Casal Collection of the José Martí National Library of Cuba reveals the sensitivity and creative transcendence of Julián del Casal (1863-1893), one of the most important figures of Latin American modernism.

This collection includes 177 handwritten letters dated in Latin America, Spain and France between 1880 and 1894. These reveal the intellectual networks and exchange in the region in the 19th century and corroborate Casal's links with some of the most important figures of the Spanish-American letters of the period such as Rubén Darío, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Enrique Gómez, Bonifacio Byrne, and other valuable intellectuals.

To the letters are added photographs and postcards with autograph dedications from renowned intellectuals; a family photo album; and two scrapbooks that contain articles, fragments of texts and poems, which demonstrate the state of reception of Casal's work among his illustrious contemporaries, as witnessed, among others, by the emotional profile dedicated to him by José Martí in the newspaper Patria.

Made up mostly of unpublished documents, the fond has motivated initiatives of investigative and editorial impact, such as those undertaken by Fernando Ortiz, Manuel Altolaguirre, José Lezama Lima, Iván Schulman, Cintio Vitier and Leonardo Sarría. The Collection was declared National Memory in 2018 as part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme.