Reinaldo Arenas

Reinaldo Arenas (born July 16, 1943, Holguín, Oriente, Cuba—died Dec. 7, 1990, New York, N.Y., U.S.) was a Cuban-born writer of extraordinary and unconventional novels who fled persecution and immigrated to the United States. As a teenager Arenas joined the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959. He moved to Havana in 1961 and became a researcher in the José Martí National Library (1963–68), an editor for the Cuban Book Institute (1967–68), and...