The essence of being an island

Cuban writer Leonardo Padura joined Frontiers of Thought

Writer Leonardo Padura lives in the area of Mantilla, in Havana, the Cuban capital, in a house built by his father six decades ago. As a boy, he used to walk freely around the streets and watch baseball games. “It was just a small community. We had everything except for a funeral home and a cemetery. I embody many of the features of the place I was born, of the areas and country where my grandparents and parents lived and where so many other authors were born”, claimed Padura during the Frontiers of Thought conference, on Aug 21.

The feeling of belonging held by the Cubans is unrivaled, ascertains Padura, who also spoke of other facets of insularity, “the evil condition of having water all around you”. “I come from an island, a country of liquid borders, which affects, conditions and determines our lives and existence.” Isolation, the migration drama and the cultural essence of Cuba were the central topics of his lecture.

Walking around Malecón, the promenade of Havana, tracing its historical path of development, from Havana Vieja to Vedado, sitting on the 1m wall and enjoy the view of the city, on one side, and the sea, on the other, brings about a contradictory feeling due to this “geographic fatality”. A means to look at yourself and envision “a tempting and far-fetched promise”, claims he.

As he mentioned the law in effect for more than 50 years which restricted the freedom of Cubans to travel, he contested the power that decides fates and desires. By 2013, people could only leave the island provided that they had special permission to do so. Journalists, sports people, artists and soldiers earned permission to work overseas. But the vast majority needed a carte blanche to head overseas to visit family and friends or should opt for a permanent departure, leading them to lose all their goods and becoming stateless. He said that throughout five decades, a fifth of the population left.

The feeling of nostalgia for the lost country is constant among present and past Cuban writers. Padura acknowledged poet José María Heredia (1803-1839), the national hero and martyr of independence, José Martí (1853-1895), Guillermo Cabrera Infante (1922-2005) and Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990). Though their works were written outside of Cuba, they nonetheless addressed the country and its inhabitants.

Expatriates and the local community

UFRGS professor Sergius Gonzaga, who served as a mediator to the event, asked Padura about the issue of insularity and the existing barriers between Cuban expatriates and those that stay in the country. Padura said he preferred to address this question as a statement of resistance rather than regret. “It is important to keep your friends, inspire loyalty and indulge in nostalgia as we keep rum and music as parts of our routine.”

Professor Janaína Baladão de Aguiar, from the School of Humanities of PUCRS, addressed that topic, as a guest speaker. Padura stressed that everyone has the right to live wherever they want. He went on to say that sometimes believes in harmony, but sometimes loses faith. He claims he has been accused of being a security agent of the Cuban government for he wanted to stay in the country he was born in.

Noir fiction

Janaína also asked about his inspiration for noir fiction, a genre created in the 1930s, featuring humanized detectives. Padura made Mario Conde known all over the world in his tetralogy Four seasons in Havana. He said he has always enjoyed reading this kind of narrative and, as a journalist, he was very strict to writers from his country who would release poor books in this genre. “I thought: I’m going to write very Cuban novels that do not resemble the Cuban ones.” This strategy has become an excuse to show the dark side of human beings and their internal engines.

Reality X fiction

When asked by the audience about the limits between reality and fiction in The man who loved dogs, he responded: “I know the limits when I start writing a novel, but I just don’t when I am about to finish it”. The narrative is about an aspiring writer who, after running into a man who was walking his dogs, recounts the last years of life of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotski. Padura asserted he tries to respect the essence of historical processes. He loves watching Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, as it shows a group of US Jews joining their efforts to fight the Nazi, but he would not be able to write something like that, so far from reality. As a novel writer, he says his readers know him very well: “They know I’m going to tell a lie that sounds true”.

 

About the writer

Padura is a novel and essay writer and a journalist. He is considered one of the best Cuban writers, having written movie screenplays and worked for 15 years as an investigative journalist. Having been granted dual citizenship by the government of Spain, he prefers to continue living on the island he was born. He became internationally recognized with the tetralogy Four seasons in Havana. The tetralogy includes Havana Blue, Havana Gold, Havan Red and Havana Black and has been translated to more than 15 countries and has won international awards, such as the Dashiell Hammet, as the best Spanish language novel, and Café Gijón, as has been adapted to cinema and television. For his entire work, he has won the Princess of Asturias Awards and the National Prize for Literature of Cuba.

Civilization

Season 2017 of project Frontiers of Thought is guided by the topic Civilização – a sociedade e seus valores (Civilization – society and its values). Relying on cultural support from PUCRS, up until December internationally recognized guests will be coming to Porto Alegre to address the quest for reconstruction, conscience and redemption of values.