The Best Novel by Reinaldo Arenas and an Anthology on the ’11J’ Protests Among Cuban Books of July

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, July 30, 2023 — After the success in bookstores of Antes que anochezca [Before Night Falls], the heterodox autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas reissued in 2022, Tusquets offers readers El mundo alucinante [The Amazing] World, considered by critics as the best Cuban novel The deranged memoirs of the Mexican friar Servando Teresa de … Continue reading “The Best Novel by Reinaldo Arenas and an Anthology on the ’11J’ Protests Among Cuban Books of July”

‘There is Only One Person Responsible: Fidel Castro,’ Reinaldo Arenas Wrote on December 7

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 7 December 2022 — On 7 December 1990, 32 years ago, Reinaldo Arenas committed suicide “without first having to go through the insult of old age.” He himself recounts that, when they told him that he would soon die of AIDS, he went to his apartment and made a wish, half … Continue reading “‘There is Only One Person Responsible: Fidel Castro,’ Reinaldo Arenas Wrote on December 7”

The Amazing Resistance of Reinaldo Arenas / Rafael Lemus

1.  March 12, 1965, an open letter by Ernesto Guevara to his friend Carlos Quijano is published in the Uruguayan weekly Marcha.  The text, “Socialism and the New Man in Cuba,” is perhaps Guevara’s most significant theoretical writing, and at the same time an emphatic declaration of the regime’s objectives emanating from the Cuban Revolution, then … Continue reading “The Amazing Resistance of Reinaldo Arenas / Rafael Lemus”

Reinaldo Arenas’ Nest of Suffering and Partying / Jose Hugo Fernandez

Havana, Cuba, December, http://www.cubanet.org. In Havana, at the corner of Prado and Dragones streets, the regime affixed a plaque to honor the memory of a foreign fascist: Manuel Fraga Iribarne. But not even the tiniest plaque or sign exists in this city that invites us to remember the most notable among those Cuban authors educated … Continue reading “Reinaldo Arenas’ Nest of Suffering and Partying / Jose Hugo Fernandez”

I Have Two Homelands / Reinaldo Arenas (from the blog of Luis Felipe Rojas)

Reinaldo Arenas, the genial writer from Holguin, the dissident against all the banners he saw fluttering before his path. Those homelands of Marti that he could rewrite, Cuba, his immense sorrow, and the night, that friend who accompanied him up to that final hour in which we all find ourselves. I have two homelands: Cuba … Continue reading “I Have Two Homelands / Reinaldo Arenas (from the blog of Luis Felipe Rojas)”

The Legal Farce Against Angel Santiesteban Reminds Me of the Celebrated Storyteller Reinaldo Arenas and The Poets Heberto Padilla and Raul Rivero

Three memories of Angel Santiesteban Miguel Iturria Savon On September 2, 2011, I published on Cubanet the article SOS for Angel Santiesteban, then harassed by the political police of the Cuban government in spite of being a writer who had been awarded multiple prizes by the regime’s own institutions. At the end of 2012 Angel was … Continue reading “The Legal Farce Against Angel Santiesteban Reminds Me of the Celebrated Storyteller Reinaldo Arenas and The Poets Heberto Padilla and Raul Rivero”

Reinaldo Arenas in memoriam

December 7, 1990 was an ordinary Friday in New York City.  Nothing unusual changed the rhythm of life flowing in the Big Apple.  In his apartment crowded with books, the writer Reinaldo Arenas prepared to put an end to his life.  Sick with AIDS, he’d concentrated his energies on finishing his novel, The Color of … Continue reading “Reinaldo Arenas in memoriam”

Cuban Writer Reinaldo García Ramos, of the Mariel Generation, Dies in Miami

In order to leave the country, he had to go to a police station and declare himself “scum” 14ymedio, Havana, August 20, 2024 — The signature of the poet Reinaldo García Ramos was the third in the inaugural issue of Mariel, the exile magazine that marked an entire generation of Cuban intellectuals and artists. This … Continue reading “Cuban Writer Reinaldo García Ramos, of the Mariel Generation, Dies in Miami”

Cuban Authorities Block Reinaldo Escobar, Editor-in-Chief of 14ymedio, From Traveling

14ymedio, Havana, 27 January 2020 — The journalist Reinaldo Escobar was not able to travel to Bogotá to participate in the event Where is the region going? Democratic perspectives in Latin America, being hosted by Sergio Arboleda University. The editor-in-chief of 14ymedio was informed that he was “regulated” early this Monday, while trying to pass the immigration window at José … Continue reading “Cuban Authorities Block Reinaldo Escobar, Editor-in-Chief of 14ymedio, From Traveling”

Deportees in Their Own Country / Cubanet, Reinaldo Cosano

Cuban Apartheid, suffered by families who abandoned their homes and went to Havana in search of a new life Cubanet.org, Reinaldo Emilio Cosano Alen, Havana, 15 May 2015 – Rodolfo Castro, from Santiago de Cuba, met with three other young men detained at the Guanabo police station east of Havana. Driven to the Central Train … Continue reading “Deportees in Their Own Country / Cubanet, Reinaldo Cosano”

Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano

By Reinaldo Cosano. Havana, Cuba Posted in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada The veil covering violent homophobic repression is slowly being drawn back, but the gulity aren’t asking for public pardon. It is hard to specify just how the virus of homophobic repression was incubated, sharp-eyed with the machismo of the days … Continue reading “Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano”

‘Under the Table,’ Juan Abreu’s Best Blow to the Ghost of Cuba

Anger and tenderness are the themes of this book; the rest is literature 14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 22 March 2025 — José Lezama Lima’s epitaph was supposed to be a phrase by Flaubert— “All lost, nothing lost” — which he ended up replacing with his own verses. When a Cuban reads Juan Abreu’s Debajo de … Continue reading “‘Under the Table,’ Juan Abreu’s Best Blow to the Ghost of Cuba”

The Commitment to be Exiled

The decades that have passed and the lack of success in the libertarian proposal have not exhausted the exile 14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 19 January 2025 — The Cuban political exile, like political imprisonment, is, without a doubt, one of the longest and most numerous in the history of humanity. Few countries have citizens who … Continue reading “The Commitment to be Exiled”

November Books: The Mafia in Cuba, Belkis Ayon’s Gods, Sartre and Beauvoir

A novel by Pavel Giroud, an anthology by storyteller Alberto Garrido and a farewell to Juan Manuel Salvat. 14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 30 November 2024 — Marked by borderline figures – she died at the age of 32, one year younger than Christ, in 1999, before the beginning of the millennium – Belkis Ayón created … Continue reading “November Books: The Mafia in Cuba, Belkis Ayon’s Gods, Sartre and Beauvoir”

Argelio Santiesteban, Author of ‘Popular Cuban Speech of Today’, Dies in Havana

The journalist and writer maintained his curiosity to explore the oral records of Cuba, rarely reflected in the official media, until the end of his life. 14ymedio, Havana, 27 November 2024 — Journalist and writer Argelio Santiesteban died this Tuesday in Havana at the age of 79, as confirmed on the radio station Radio Progreso’s … Continue reading “Argelio Santiesteban, Author of ‘Popular Cuban Speech of Today’, Dies in Havana”