Persecución

by Reinaldo Arenas

Reinaldo Arenas is one of the leading Cuban writers of the twentieth century. He was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1943. From 1974 to1976 he was incarcerated in the El Morro prison in Havana. He left Cuba in 1980 via the Mariel Boatlift along with125,000 other Cubans who were opposed to the ruling regime in Cuba. He settled in New York where he obtained the Cintas and Guggenheim fellowships, as well as the award for best foreign novelist published in France in 1989. On Friday, December 7, 1990, he ended his life. In a letter sent to the Horacio Aguirre, director of the Spanish newspaper Diario LasAmericas in Miami, he explained his reasons. The main reason was that due to his illness, he was unable to continue fighting for the freedom of Cuba. Among his major works are the novels: Celestino antes del alba, El mundo alucinante, El color del verano (for many this is his most important work), El Asalto, Adi�s a Mam�, and a few more. In this book, five plays are united under one unifying theme: persecution. Cruel, experimental, casual, ironic and poetic, this book besides being, first and foremost, a work of art, is also an insight into the eternal duality that seems to characterize a human being: his status, both sublime and terrible that makes him the victim or the victimizer. As with many of his other books, this work is satirical (and therefore critical) of the current Cuban regime.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Arenas was born in the countryside, in the northern part of the Province of Oriente, Cuba, and later moved to the city of Holguín. In 1963, he moved to Havana to enroll in the School of Planification and, later, in the Faculty of Letters at the Universidad de La Habana, where he studied philosophy and literature without completing a degree. The following year, he began working at the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí. While there, his talent was noticed and he was awarded prizes at Cirilo Villaverde National Competition held by UNEAC (National Union of Cuban Writers and Artists). His Hallucinations was awarded "first Honorable Mention" in 1966 although, as the judges could find no better entry, no First Prize was awarded that year.

His writings and openly gay lifestyle were, by 1967, bringing him into conflict with the Communist government. He left the Biblioteca Nacional and became an editor for the Cuban Book Institute until 1968. From 1968 to 1974 he was a journalist and editor for the literary magazine La Gaceta de Cuba. In 1973, he was sent to prison after being charged and convicted of 'ideological deviation' and for publishing abroad without official consent.

He escaped from prison and tried to leave Cuba by launching himself from the shore on a tire inner tube. The attempt failed and he was rearrested near Lenin Park and imprisoned at the notorious El Morro Castle alongside murderers and rapists. He survived by helping the inmates to write letters to wives and lovers. He was able to collect enough paper this way to continue his writing. However, his attempts to smuggle his work out of prison were discovered and he was severely punished. Threatened with death, he was forced to renounce his work and was released in 1976. In 1980, as part of the Mariel Boatlift, he fled to the United States. He came on the boat San Lazaro captained by Cuban immigrant Roberto Aguero.

In 1987, Arenas was diagnosed with AIDS; he continued to write and speak out against the Cuban government. He mentored many Cuban exile writers, including John O'Donnell-Rosales. After battling AIDS, Arenas died of an intentional overdose of drugs and alcohol on December 7, 1990, in New York City. In a suicide letter written for publication, Arenas wrote: "Due to my delicate state of health and to the terrible depression that causes me not to be able to continue writing and struggling for the freedom of Cuba, I am ending my life... I want to encourage the Cuban people abroad as well as on the Island to continue fighting for freedom... Cuba will be free. I already am."

In 2012 Arenas was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display which celebrates LGBT history and people