Fliyer de la presentación de la exposición y libro Ebro/Orbe en el interior

El 7 de diciembre de 1990 el escritor cubano Reinaldo Arenas , en fase terminal del SIDA, se suicidaba en Nueva York dejando este estremecedor testimonio personal y político , que terminó apenas unos días antes de poner fin a su vida. Arenas, en efecto, reunía las tres condiciones más idóneas para convertirse en uno de los muchos parias engendrados por el infierno inquisitorial y carcelario de la Cuba castrista : ser escritor, homosexual y disidente . Silencien o no la presencia de este libro los interesados en perpetuar el engaño, deseamos que sean cada vez menos los que aún digan que ignoran qué encubría, y encubre, el célebre «paraíso caribeño» del patriarca Fidel Castro. De los bajos fondos de la Habana, donde reptan los excluidos del sistema, a la dificultad de vivir, una vez en el exterior, negándose a la discreta neutralidad que la izquierda bien pensante espera de un exiliado cubano, la vida de Arenas fue, muy a pesar suyo, una continua peripecia vital e intelectual.

First of all, I'm glad to have read this. However, it was a very challenging book for me to get through. Arenas, who was a gay writer in Cuba during the Batista and then Castro regimes and a survivor of an impoverished youth, writes about his experiences very candidly. His descriptions of his childhood were often disturbing. The numerous anecdotes of his sexual encounters bored me to death. In addition, these descriptions were sometimes peppered with braggadocio, and an almost machismo tone, which didn't help.
However, it's important to remember that this was someone who grew up in impoverished conditions and was continually oppressed. In his own words, "I had never been allowed to be a real human being in the fullest sense of the word." With that in mind, it becomes understandable that he would focus on what brought him the most joy in life, his sexual encounters, as well as relationship with literature and the sea. In fact, when you look closer at this book, you become aware of the lyrical and melancholic tones that Arenas is evoking, and those moments become quite poignant. Overall, he seems to have had an unfulfilled and tragic life.
I would recommend this book to those who want to learn more about Arenas as a writer and to those who would like to know more about gay culture in Cuba during this time, especially in the literary world. Just know going in that his was not a happy life, nor a full one, and be mindful of the context of his situation as you read. ( )

Really astounding. ( )

Sex was alive and well in Cuba according to the memoir of Reinaldo Arenas. But so was totalitarianism, homophobia, torture, betrayal, and poverty. Despite those things there are also friends, community, and a love of poetry and literature. No matter what happened to him Arenas kept writing--hiding his manuscripts in his roof and smuggling them out of Cuba to be published abroad.

His story is a triumph but his end tragic--he died in New York in 1990 by his own hand after suffering from AIDS. His goodbye note though,
left some hope, "I want to encourage the Cuban people out the country as well as on the Island to continue fighting for freedom. I do not want to convey to you a message of defeat but of continued struggle and of hope. Cuba will be free. I already am."

After reading this book, I have added his work to my wishlist.

"I will tell my truth like a Jew who has suffered from racism, a Russian who has been in the Gulag, or any human being who has eyes to see things as they are: I cry out: therefore I am."
--Reinaldo Arenas ( )