Diario de un brigadista / Diary of a Brigade: Cuba, 1961: Escritura y vida, una conversacion con Enrique Serna / Cuba, 1961: Writing and Life, a Conversation with Enrique Serna

by José Agustín

A Brigadist's Journal is the testimony of a story that could be part of a José Agustín, writer in the making, of scarce 16 years old, marries impulsively and without the knowledge of his parents to be able to travel in 1961 to the young Cuba, two years after the revolution. The young couple, packed with illusions and in full beginning of their life together, travels by ship towards a world that should be new. Slight of baggage and without a penny in his pocket, José Agustín disembarks to share his knowledge with the "guajiros" of the mountains and to live in the island an experience that would change his life. Thus, from Cárdenas to Matanzas, from Santa Clara to Camagüey, from Santiago to Holguín, on board of the famous "guaguas" (buses), the youngster travels with a notebook where he registers the experiences and daily coexistences of his alphabetizing journey. Enduring hunger and fatigue, feeding on guava dessert and salted milk after long work days in the field, José Agustín goes on leaving us the portrait of an adolescent artist and of a time still marked by idealism. Diario de brigadista es el testimonio de una historia casi de José Agustín, escritor en ciernes, de escasos 16 años, se casa impulsivamente y a escondidas de sus padres para poder viajar en 1961 a la joven Cuba, dos años después de la revolución. La joven pareja, llena de ilusiones y en plena iniciación de la vida, arriba en barco a un mundo que iba a ser nuevo. Ligero de equipaje y sin un peso en el bolsillo, José Agustín desembarca para compartir sus conocimientos con los guajiros de la sierra y vivir en la isla una experiencia que cambiaría su vida. Soportando el hambre y la fatiga, alimentándose de dulces de guayaba y leche salada tras largas jornadas de trabajo en el campo, José Agustín nos va dejando el retrato de un artista adolescente y de una época marcada todavía por el idealismo.

165 pages, Paperback

First published September 14, 2010

About the author

José Agustín Ramírez Gómez is a Mexican novelist.

Agustin's first novel, La Tumba (The Tomb) was the brief but provocative story of a Mexican upperclass teen, deemed indecent by the public but gathering praise from older writers. This and his most famous work, De Perfil (Profile view), a fast and detailed view of three days in the main character's life, show stylistic similarities to James Joyce's work, especially A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

He was considered a member of the so-called Onda literature, onda (wave) being slang for current and fashionable views in the eyes of young people.

A common technique in his work is mixing character's speech with narrative, without making any kind of distinction,(free indirect discourse). Thus the reader finds a long dialogue written in a single sentence,and is expected to realize which character is speaking as he reads the words. He also makes use of the stream of consciousness technique.

Reviews

[Jimena Lankenau]

José Agustín te amo

[Pablo]

Gran lectura para celebrar los 53 años del triunfo de la revolución cubana.

[Indra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy agradable de leer y refleja un contexto de una forma muy a la José Agustín... muy recomendable ;)