Reinaldo Arenas, the great Cuban writer, was born and raised in the poverty common to Cuban peasants, but it was early apparent that he was born to write. He spent his early years struggling to learn how to harness his gift. He had early success as a young man, never dreaming that the Castro regime would soon begin cracking down on homosexuals, writers, thinkers, creative people—anyone who didn't march in lockstep with the Communist ideology. But he continued to write. He wrote in the face of government persecution, even when he was targeted as a “homosexual counterrevolutionary.” Once, he even tried to escape Cuba by using an inner tube, in an attempt to reach Miami.

Confined on false charges in the horrendous dungeons of El Morro prison, he wrote and managed to smuggle the pages out. While at El Morro he was often punished by solitary confinement in silence and filth, in a room too small to stand or lie down. He wrote in the face of constant harassment, betrayal, censorship, and the destruction of all of his manuscripts they could find. He wrote while hiding out, living as wild as an animal, depending on handouts and help from friends who risked their own freedom to help him stay alive; some risked everything to smuggle his manuscripts out of Cuba. One such smuggled novel was published in France to international acclaim, while the author of it was a homeless fugitive. Reinaldo’s homosexuality was a large part of who he was; he does not sugarcoat or ignore his many explicit casual sexual encounters.

His final escape from Cuba, during the Mariel boatlift in 1980, would not have happened if he had not falsified one letter in his name; Reinaldo Arenas was on the list of people who were not to be allowed to leave; “Reinaldo Arinas” left Mariel on a dangerously overcrowded boat.

Our image of Castro may have softened a bit over the years, but if you want to read a fascinating and terrifying account of what it was really like after Castro came to power, read Before Night Falls. If you want to learn what it is to be so driven to create that you will do it even if you may die for it, read Before Night Falls. If you want to learn about the loneliness, anger, and despair of an expatriate who feels betrayed by an indifferent America, an exile who can never go home again, read Before Night Falls. Make no mistake: this is a brutal work, and as such is not easy to read. But if he could live it, can we not read it?

In 1990 Reinaldo Arenas, who had developed AIDS, committed suicide in New York City. He died embittered at the United States and the people who had wept crocodile tears over the plight of Cubans and then did nothing.

In addition to the book, there is also a film based on the book, with the same title, starring Javier Bardem as Reinaldo, with clips of Castro’s actual harangues. An added note about the movie: Johnny Depp in two different brief roles: a gorgeous transvestite and a lean, mustachioed interrogation officer.

BEFORE NIGHT FALLS
By Reinaldo Arenas, translated by Dolores Koch
Publisher: Penguin 1994
ISBN: 0140157654
ISBN: 978-0140157659

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