Fuentes, Norberto

Norberto Fuentes was born in Havana on March 2, 1943. He holds a degree in Spanish-American Literature from the University of Havana . He worked as a journalist for the Segodnya and Granma newspapers and collaborated with the Mella and Cuba International (now Cuba) publications. In 1961, he spent two years as a reporter in the mountains of Escambray among the rebels who opposed the Fidel Castro regime.

In 1968, his debut short story collection The Cursed Counties ( Spanish: Condenados de Condado ) was published, which he wrote about rebellion and rebels. For his debut that same year, he received the literary award . However, the writer was criticized by official authorities.

In 1971, he was one of the writers on the case of Eberto Padilla , accused of subversive activities for publicly criticizing the Fidel Castro regime in the building of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. Norberto Fuentes was the only one who was also accused of counter-revolution, but released. In the mid-1970s, he began work on the book Hemingway in Cuba ( Spanish: Hemingway en Cuba ), which was published in 1984 with a preface by Gabriel Garcia Marquez . In the same year, he received an interview about Ernest Hemingway from Fidel Castro, who personally knew the writer ^[2] .

In the 1980s, Norberto Fuentes was sent to Angola as a reporter in the Cuban military units stationed in that country. As a result, he wrote the book “The Last Sanctuary” ( Spanish: El último santuario ), for which he was awarded the medal of the Warriors-Internationalists of Class I. In 1988, the writer was a member of the Cuban delegation, which negotiated a peace agreement, together with the governments of Angola, South Africa , the USA and the USSR .

Norberto Fuentes became a dissident in 1989 after the trial of his friend police colonel Antonio de la Guardia and Army General Arnaldo Ochoa , who were convicted of drug smuggling and executed. The trial of them was initiated by Raul Castro , who himself was suspected of organizing drug trafficking in Cuba ^[1] .

In 1993, the writer tried to escape from the island on a raft, but was detained. The following year, after a hunger strike and the intervention of Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Salis and Felipe González, he was allowed to emigrate to the United States. Already in exile in 2004, he wrote the fictional Autobiography of Fidel Castro ( Spanish: La autobiografía de Fidel Castro ). Currently resides in the states of Florida and Virginia and collaborates with Latin American and European publications.

• “Cursed Counties” ( Spanish Condenados de Condado , 2000)
• The House of Criminals ( Spanish: Cazabandido , parts 1963 and 1969; 1970)
• “The only position” ( Spanish Posición Uno , 1982)
• Hemingway in Cuba ( Spanish: Hemingway en Cuba , 1984)
• “We have been abused” ( Spanish: Nos impusieron la violencia , 1986)
• “Ernest Hemigway: Rediscovered” ( Spanish: Ernest Hemingway: Redescubierto , 1987)
• The Last Sanctuary ( Spanish: El último santuario , 1992)
• “Gentle Cuban Warriors” ( Spanish: Dulces guerreros cubanos , 1999)
• “Drug trafficking and revolutionary challenges” ( Spanish: Narcotráfico y tareas revolucionarias , 2002)
• Autobiography of Fidel Castro ( Spanish: La autobiografía de Fidel Castro ) - Volume I: Another Paradise ( Spanish: El paraíso de los otros , 2004). Volume II (“Absolute and insufficient power” ( Spanish: El poder absoluto e insuficiente , 2007)
• The Last Dissident ( Spanish El último disidente , 2008)

• Norberto Fuentes Personal Blog (Spanish)
• Norberto Fuentes at Cubaencuentro (Spanish)
• Norberto Fuentes at El País (Spanish)