Reinaldo Arenas

“Reinaldo Arenas: (1943-1990) Cuban novelist. A great innovator with an inexhaustible poetic imagination, Arenas suffered years of repression of his ‘lack of realism’ and supposed decadence, as well as for his political dissent and open homosexuality. He exiled himself to New York in 1980. The novel that launched Arenas was El mundo alucinante (1969; tr Hallucinations, 1971), an allegorical reconstruction of the adventures of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, a Mexican priest of the late 18^th century, whose subversive mystical thought paved the way for Mexican independence. Arenas’s central work was ‘pentagony’ of five novels dealing with life in Cuba before and after Castro, consisting of Celestino antes del alba (1967; tr Singing from the Well, 1988); El palacio de las blanquistas mofetas (The Palace of the Very White Skunks, 1980); Otra vez del mar (1982; tr Farewell to the Sea, 1986); El color del verano (The Color of Summer, 1991); and El asalto (1991; tr The Assault, 1993). Other books include La vieja rosa (1980; tr Old Rosa, 1989), depicting a woman’s aging process within a society whose traditional values have been profoundly altered, and Arturo, la Estrella ms brillante (1984; tr Arturo, the Shining Star, 1992), about the traumatic experiences of a homosexual in a concentration camp. Ill with AIDS and no longer able to write, Arenas committed suicide in 1990 after completing his last works. He left two extreme visions of himself, the tender recollections of Adis a Mam (Good-bye to Mama, 1994) and his controversial autobiography, Antes que anochezca (1992; tr Before Night Falls, 1993), which portrays his troubled youth and sexual excesses.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.