“Life in Cuba is such that, if you have money, you virtually have no problems. But if you don’t have money, you’re screwed,” says the author.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Juan Palop, Havana, July 13, 2024 — Cuban author Pedro Juan Gutiérrez explains in an interview that his anger is gone and he has entered a new, happier, more poetic stage as is evident in his new book, Mecánica Popular [Popular Mechanic]. Now 74-years-old, the author of Trilogía sucia de La Habana [Dirty Havana Trilogy] and Animal Tropical [Tropical Animal] claims he has given up cynicism, anger, alcohol and rage. He now embraces Buddhism, stoicism and — in literature — poetic language and character development.
His latest book, recently published in Spain, is a collection of seventeen short stories set in Cuba in the 1950s and 1960s. Short, seemingly superficial works with deeper meanings, snapshots whose moral message the reader must fill in. And all with a clearly autobiographical component.
Gutiérrez happened to come across some old issues of the magazine Mecánica popular [Popular Mechanic], which he says taught him how to read and draw. Finding them, he says, was like “opening a door to memory.” That discovery led to this intimate, sometimes even mysterious book, which contrasts with the crude existentialism of the work that made him famous in the 1990s.
“I now have a more poetic view of life. I am happier. I have learned how to better control my personal life
“I now have a more poetic view of life. I am happier. I have learned how to better control my personal life and that is reflected in what you write, in everything you do,” he says. He says that life is about stages and that, since turning sixty, he has adopted “a philosophy of poetry, contemplation, and meditation.” The contrast with his past — both personal and literary — is evident. “Fortunately, that phase is over,” he confesses.
“When I wrote the five books of the Central Havana series — Trilogía sucia Dirty Trilogy, El rey de La Habana [The King of Havana], Animal Tropical [Tropical Animal], El insaciable hombre araña [The Insatiable Spider-Man], and Carne de perro [Dog Meat] — I was filled with rage. I was a little aggressive and was also drinking a lot. . . Like my entire generation, I had committed myself to a political experiment that was going down, that was taking on water,” he recalls.
The 1990s were a dramatic decade in Cuba. The collapse of the Soviet bloc brought on the Special Period, which was marked by serious food shortages and prolonged blackouts from which the country has never fully recovered. That brutal time, says Gutiérrez, led him to create work that he likens to hitting the reader in the head with a machete. “This is what is happening to me and I am very disappointed, very angry and feel very deceived,” he says.
Gutiérrez believes the current situation is very different despite the fact that Cuba once again finds itself in a “totally catastrophic” situation, plagued by uncertainty and with no ready solutions. “Life in Cuba now is such that, if you have money, you have virtually no problems. But if you don’t have money, you’re screwed,” says the author.
Despite the changes, he has always opted for “poetic democracy”
Despite the changes, he has always opted for “poetic democracy,” a concept that boils down to doing whatever he wants to do without regard for established norms. He says it is how he has always lived his life: individually, with a certain sense of irresponsibility. “I believe that an artist, that a writer, should be a little irresponsible with material life, with everyday life, with daily life. Only then do you have total freedom to create as broadly as possible,” he explains.
At this point, he says he is extraordinarily grateful for the “intense” life he has had to live, though it has not always having been easy. “Life in Cuba has been a great adventure, sometimes a terrible adventure, but also a challenge. My life – I am not judging my generation nor am I speaking in general – has been one of continuous challenge. Difficult situations turn life into a constant challenge,” he says.
Regarding future projects, the writer says he does not have the energy to take on a new novel. Yes, he is working on a memoir of sorts but it is not organized chronologically. He already tried that during the pandemic and it turned out to be a “brick.” Instead, it will be series of “capsules,” which he says may prove “interesting.”
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