Guillermo Cabrera Infante, 75
One of the greats of Cuban letters, among the most experimental and uncompromising writers in all of modern Spanish lit, a staunch enemy of Fidel and a fabulist of global importance, Guillermo Cabrera Infante died in exile in London last week.
More sensual and politically engaged than James Joyce, Infante's literary achievement spanned numerous novels, essays, books and pioneering film criticism; winner of the 1997 Miguel de Cervantes prize for literature-the Pulitzer of the Spanish-speaking world-Infante's late success followed a life of intrigue and loss.
Born in 1929 in provincial Gibrara to parents who were backers of Batista and founders of Cuba's communist movement, Infante's first position of importance was as editor of the literary supplement of Revolución, the state newspaper. It was only a matter of time before a moralist on the level of Infante fell from grace. In 1959, he opposed the government's decision to ban his brother's documentary on Havana nightlife (depicting prostitution, drugs, Western music and the like).
In the wake of that scandal, Infante was publicly censured by Castro and subsequently forbidden to publish; as an alternative to a lifetime of native silence, Infante-whose family was very well connected to the communist elite-was instead sent to Brussels in 1962 as Cuba's cultural attaché.
Infante spent time in Madrid, then left for London; he soon took British citizenship, vowing not to return to Cuba until Castro left power. Indeed, he returned to Cuba only once, for his mother's funeral in 1965, spending the remainder of his life in self-imposed exile in Europe.
Homelessness and alienation are two major themes in Infante's work, all filtered through a quietly flashy style with moments of South American magical realism. His major writings include Mea Cuba, a rare departure into politics, and his most famous work, 1967's Tres Tristes Tigres (Three Trapped Tigers), a Ulysses-like account of Havana casino and cabaret life in the years prior to Castro's ascension. This novel, partly written in Havana's street slang, channeled the best of Anglo-American modernism to revolutionize Spanish-language literature.
His other works include the major novels View of Dawn in the Tropics and Infante's Inferno; A Twentieth Century Job is a masterpiece of so-called intellectual film criticism that has no peer in the Spanish world, with the exception of some of Borges' early reviews, and that internationally rivals anything by Kael or Siegfried Krakauer.
Infante's entire intellectual life was one of rigorous honesty. Though he didn't outlive Castro-no one does-he successfully, and probably with much pain, repudiated the utopian dreams of his parents to assert a Cuban identity that transcended politics, to embrace Havana's glory, beauty and violence.