[2] Upon selecting him for the Juan Rulfo Prize, the award jury called him "one of the most important writers of his generation".
Poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, who was in exile at the time, wrote the introduction and chose the poems.
In the book, Vitier and Japanese writer Daisaku Ikeda explore the life, work and influence of José Martí (1853–1895) the Cuban independence hero, and discuss the nature of sacrifice for the sake of a great cause.
Vitier and Ikeda met in Havana and in Tokyo, Japan, and their dialogue was initially serialized in Ushio, a Japanese literary magazine, between June 1999 and April 2000.
The Japanese edition of their discussions was compiled and published as a book in August 2001, and Diálogo sobre José Martí, el Apóstol de Cuba, the Spanish edition, was published in Cuba in October 2001 and in the Dominican Republic in May 2002.