Félix B. Caignet

Félix Benjamín Caignet Salomón, known as Félix B. Caignet, (March 31, 1892 – May 25, 1976) was a Cuban radio writer, broadcaster, poet, novelist, journalist, theater critic, singer and musical composer. He is known as a pioneer of radio broadcasting in Cuba, and as one of the creators of Latin American soap operas.

He was known for his ability to make radio audiences cry. He purposely wrote to make people cry, as he realized that “many were born with pain and misery tattooed on their souls and had so much pain and bitterness in their lives that they never cried for themselves.”

Caignet believed that the audiences “took on the feelings of one or another character who was suffering and, without being aware of it, associated their own pain with that of the fictitious figure, and cried with him or her.”

Félix B. Caignet’s radio dramas were broadcast throughout Central and South America and brought stories of social reality and the “speaking in metaphors” narrative style into popularity.