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Fiction 29
son was an infant, and
Carpentier always identified as
a Cuban. He received a first-
rate education in private
schools and graduated from the
University of Havana.
Carpentier would spend
most of the rest of his life over-
seas. In 1928, after being jailed
for his opposition to the dicta-
torship of Gerardo Machado,
Carpentier fled to France. He
spent more than a decade in
Paris before moving back to
Havana in 1939. He lived in
Venezuela from 1945 until 1959, when the Cuban Revolution—
of which he was an enthusiastic supporter—swept away the
dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. And, from 1966 until his
death in 1980, Carpentier again lived in Paris, serving Fidel
Castro’s government as Cuba’s ambassador to France.
Carpentier was a man of great intellect and wide interests.
He was fascinated by Afro-Cuban culture, which he incorporat-
ed into opera librettos and ballet pieces he created. He wrote
plays, essays, and literary criticism. His meticulous study of
Cuban music,
La música en Cuba
(1946), is considered a mas-
terpiece of musical scholarship.
But Carpentier is best known for his works of fiction, which
deal with themes like violence and revolution; history, time, and
the nature of reality; and modern versus traditional worldviews.
Alejo Carpentier had a strong influence on
the literature of Latin America during the
20th century.