34 / 80
Arts and Literature of Cuba
34
refusal to permit the release of a documentary film made by his
brother. As a result,
Lunes
was closed down and Cabrera
Infante barred from publishing in Cuba. With few options, he
accepted a post at Cuba’s embassy in Brussels, Belgium, in
1962. He eventually went into exile, settling in London.
In 1967 Cabrera Infante published his masterpiece,
Tres
tristes tigres
. The title, a Spanish language tongue-twister, liter-
ally means “three sad tigers,” but the English translation
appeared as
Three Trapped Tigers
. The novel, an evocation of
pre-revolutionary Havana nightlife, has multiple narrators but
little plot. It’s rich in witty dialogue and dazzling wordplay.
The famous Tropicana nightclub in Havana is featured in Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s
novel
Tres tristes tigres
, about 1950s nightlife in Cuba.