Cuba. WHEN LITERATURE MEETS HISTORY

Poetry and history, rebellion and novels. Literature cuba is the border place between the living and the imaginary.

by Fabio Massimo Penna

The writers of cuba are often for the peculiarities to be lowered fully in the social and political events of the caribbean island. Steeped in History, in the processes that change the world: theirs is a literature that should show the reality in its brutal ferocity to stimulate in the reader a reaction ethics. The existence and work of José Martì are inextricably linked, with the events that have characterized the history of Cuba. The literary activities with a commitment revolutionary, a dedication to the destiny of their own country he will end up deeply effecting his life. Witness since childhood of oppression to which the colonial regime the Spanish made the people cuban, Martí is the young, among the protagonists of the political activity of the country, and boosts revolutionary times to obtain the achievement of independence of Cuba from Spanish rule. Only sixteen years of age, due to the participation an insurrection against the iberians, he was arrested and imprisoned. It's the beginning a series of arrests and condemnations to exile that will have to run as a the leitmotif of the existence of Martí. In these years, restless is also the opportunity to devote himself to art, enrolling at the professional school for the painting and sculpture of Havana. His aptitude for study and the passion for the culture is confirmed by two degrees (one in Law, another in Letters and Philosophy) that takes in Spain during the exile. For his spirit patriotic Martì is unpopular with the Spanish authorities and is, therefore, forced to moving continuously between the United States, Spain, Mexico, the Guatemala and Venezuela. The end of his life, is at the height of the heroic the furore of patriotism that inspired: landed in Cuba with a group of rebels die in combat, killed by the Spanish troops. His work literary is characterized by the written policy but also by a poem inspired by the work of Walt Whitman that is collected in such simple Verses (1891), and the free Verse appeared in Poems complete (1953). It is important, also, the drama of patriotism in verse Abdala (1869). Cuba has dedicated various monuments to this writer considered the Father of his country and a hero of independence. In Havana, there is the monument to José Martí, which is perhaps the the monument most famous of all the caribbean island, it is a tower whose the top is the highest point of the city. Built in the Fifties on the project a group of architects headed by Enrique Luis Varela, is high-almost 109 metres with a diameter of 78,50 metres. In front of the tower is placed a the white statue of the writer and the hero 17 meters high.

For the cuban literature is essential to the figure of José Lezama Lima. Its important cultural action led him to promote magazines such as Orìgenes and to be the animator of the cultural circles. He graduated in Law, Lezama Lima reveals himself to be a connoisseur of the orphic poets and the work of Luis De Gongora, a fact that leads him to write important lyrics taste hermetic, and visionary. Its role of flagship of the cuban culture is get posts by Fidel Castro, who appointed him director of the literature the National Council of Culture, whilst in 1962, obtained the vice-presidency the Union Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba. The great success international reach with the novel Paradiso (1966) in which, through the clever use of riddles and allegories, creates a work of art by the taste autobiographical a time to reveal a reality that is intimate and secret. The constant use metaphors causes the novel to be compared to the masterpiece's To the search of lost time. His most important lyrics are collected in the book Death of Narcissus (1937) and in 1977 appeared posthumously, the unfinished novel Oppiano Licario. The House-Museum Lezamo Lima is housed in the first the house of the writer in Havana. It is a humble abode full of books that is a visit necessary for fans of the cuban literature. It's the place where the great writer he wrote a large part of his work. Another prominent figure is that of Guillermo Cabrera Infante. Writer, film critic and diplomat, Cabrera Infante has a relationship stormy with the government of castro. Get important positions in the embassy Brussels, Madrid and Barcelona but, due to a dislike of the regime castro in regard to his political positions chose to move to Great Britain. Previously, Cabrera Infante had problems with the administration of Batista, but it is under Castro that his dissent against the government forced to leave the single caribbean. A hard testimony of his hostility towards Fidel Castro is the book, Mea culpa , 1992. The his literary activity begins with the collection of short stories as Well in peace as in war (1960), while the renown comes with Three Tigers the Sad (1964), a work characterized by experimentation with language, and extraordinary inventions verbal. In his vast production there are also the novel autobiographical, Havana for an infant, deceased (1960), and numerous screenplays film.

Known at international level is the journalist, writer and screenwriter Leonardo Padura Fuentes. Graduate in Literature from the University of Havana, Padura Fuentes starts journalism writing for the literary magazine El Barbudo caimàn and the daily Juventud Rebelde. He debuts as a writer with the novel Fiebre de caballos (1983-84) before establishing himself to the attention of the public and critical with the novels presenting the detective Mario Conde: Remote Past (1991), Masks (1997), Landscape Autumn (1998), Farewell Hemingway (2001), and The Fog of the Past (2005). In 2009 comes out The Man Who Loved Dogs Extraordinary Novel in which the author retraces the story of Trotsky's murder by by Ramon Mercader in a work characterized by historical precision and a refined description of psychologies.