Born on August 11th, 1931 in Santiago de Cuba. He graduated from Primary School at La Salle. Later he traveled to the United States where studied at Williston Academy in Massachusetts and took one year of Economics at Pennsylvania University. When he returned to Cuba in 1951he started studying laws at University of Oriente and graduated as a lawyer five years later. In 1997 he obtained the category of Dr. in Historic Sciences at the University of Havana.

Between 1953 and 1963 he worked as English Teacher and on National Council of Culture. The following years and up to 1967, he worked at the Armed Forces (FAR). After that he has worked at the Cuban Broadcasting Institute and at the Institute of History and Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba as researcher.

Jorge Ibarra is a man of the Cuban history doubly: as figure and studious . As a history maker, during his youth he participated in several risky actions against Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar´s dictatorship in Mexico and the United States. In these matters he shared with classmates from the Federation of Cuban University Students and from organizations, who were called to occupy an important place during the revolutionary fight, some of them lost their lives such as Frank País, Pepito Tey, José Antonio Echeverría and Jesús Suárez Gayol. And some other who after the Triumph of the Revolution in 1959 would carry out the project they had fought for. As researcher, he has developed an indispensable work about different aspects among which it can be mentioned his History Books; Un análisis sicosocial del cubano: 1898-1925 ; or Cuba: 1898-1958, estructuras y procesos sociales .

He has written ten books and several articles published in specialized magazines, some of them have been translated into foreign languages. Jorge Ibarra has delivered lectures in foreign universities such as the Oxford University and has participated in several congresses, lectures and academic meetings in Cuba and abroad.

He has been awarded the National Critic Prize for his books Ideología mambisa (1969) , Cuba: 1898-1921, Partidos políticos y clases sociales (1993) and Cuba: 1898-1958: estructuras y procesos sociales (1996). He was awarded the National Award of Social Sciences in 1996 for his excellent work.