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Fiction 35
Over the next four decades, Cabrera published a wide
range of writing, including volumes of essays, short-story
collections, and novels. In the last category, a couple are espe-
cially noteworthy.
Vista del amanecer en el trópico
(1974),
published in English as
A View of Dawn in the Tropics
, is an
experimental novel consisting of a series of vignettes that
retell Cuban history from the perspective of the defeated
rather than the victors.
La Habana para un infante difunto
(1979), published in English as
Infante’s Inferno
—the author
assisted in the translation and provided the droll title—is a
semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel. It, like much of
Cabrera Infante’s other work, contains laugh-out-loud humor.
But, again like much of his other work, there’s also a certain
wistfulness, even melancholy. Cabrera Infante didn’t like life
in exile. However, he swore that he would return to his native
Cuba only after Fidel Castro was gone.
He never got the chance. He died in 2005—11 years before
the dictator he despised.
Miguel Barnet: Pioneer of “Testimonio”
A newspaper story caught Miguel Barnet’s eye. It was about an
Afro-Cuban man who’d reached his 103rd birthday. The man,
named Esteban Montejo, had been a
cimarrón
—a fugitive
slave—and had later fought for Cuba’s independence from
Spain. The year was 1963, and Barnet—born in Havana in
1940—was a rising poet and a recent university graduate with
a degree in sociology. He tracked Montejo to a home for veter-
ans and paid him a visit. He asked the old man to tell him about
his experiences, tape recording their discussion. That first