Translation Rights TQE / Authors / Arenas, Reinaldo

Reinaldo Arenas was born in 1943 “in an uncertain and rocky location somewhere to the north of Holguín and to the south of Gibara”.  He grew up in the misery of a peasant family during the Batista dictatorship, and he sided with the revolution shortly after the overthrow of the old regime, continuing to support it for a time.  Despite having friends and teachers such as Lezama Lima and Virgilio Piñera in Havana, he was virtually self-educated. These friendships, labelled “socially dangerous” and “counter-revolutionary” hardly helped his deteriorating reputation.  Reading the story of his life is like reading an adventure, in that Arenas hardly ever seems to enjoy a moment’s peace.  His many novels and his poetry were always written under times of duress.  Antes que anochezca (Before Night Falls) is hardly an exception.  He decided on the title because he started the work when he lived as an outlaw in the woods in Cuba, and had to finish writing before nightfall.  In New York he wrote in his “Introduction”:  “Now night was falling again in a more imminent way.  It was the night of death”.