Search results for: Reinaldo Arenas

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 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”

Our Intellectual Stupidity

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 7 February 2024 — No one is stupider than the idiot who thinks he is an intellectual, myself included. When I started becoming politically active, I arrogantly believed that, where others had failed, I would succeed. I thought that the higher the collective IQ a movement had, the better its … Continue reading “Our Intellectual Stupidity”

‘Writers and Artists Under Communism’, a Chronicle About the Cuban Government’s Hatred of Culture

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, January 6, 2024 — “Down with the apolitical writers! Down with the supermen of literature!” “Their original sin: they are not authentically revolutionary.” “Outside the Revolution, no rights.” The law of eternal return presides over the tension between the intellectuals and communism. Guevara repeats Castro, and Castro repeats Stalin or Mao. … Continue reading “‘Writers and Artists Under Communism’, a Chronicle About the Cuban Government’s Hatred of Culture”

Eternal Summer, Eternal Hell

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 27 August 2023 – It’s been a good year for Reinaldo Arenas. A few moths after re-publishing Antes que anochezca [Before Night Falls], Tusquets rescued El mundo alucinante [Hallucinations] and its to be hoped that more of his titles return to the bookshops during the celebrations for 80 years since his birth. … Continue reading “Eternal Summer, Eternal Hell”

Cuba: The 26th of July of History and Propaganda

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 26 July 2023 — On this anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks on 26 July 1953, it is logical to assume that the official statements and the government press conform to the guidelines drawn up by the Communist Party of Cuba, the supreme institution of the nation. Foreign admirers, … Continue reading “Cuba: The 26th of July of History and Propaganda”

People Who Fall in Love With Their Typewriters

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, March 26, 2023 – A trade or a profession leaves its marks on the body. A scar, a cut, bags under the eyes behind the spectacles or broken ribs. A language of pain, written into the skin and bones, and also into the memory. Many carpenters have damaged thumbs, a builder never … Continue reading “People Who Fall in Love With Their Typewriters”