Magali Alabau

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Magali Alabau (* 1945 in Cienfuegos , Central Cuba) is a Cuban actress, director and poet.

Life

Cuba

She studied acting at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (National Art School, ENA) in Havana, where she was part of the newly founded theater group Grupo de Teatro Joven . After three and a half years of study, she and a group of students were expelled from college in 1964 on suspicion of homosexuality. As a director, she staged the premiere of the play Los mangos de Caín by the author Abelardo Estorino in August 1965 in the theater of the Havana School of Architecture. The piece, published in 1964 in the magazine of the Casa de las Américas, deals with authoritarianism and oppression against a biblical background. Shortly before the planned third performance, the piece was canceled on the instructions of the Communist Youth Union ( Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas , UJC) and further performances were prevented. The UJC had been a member of Alabau until she was expelled from university. Under the impression of homophobia promoted by the government authorities and increasing cultural intolerance, she was forced to leave her home country.

Exile in the USA

Alabau received an exit permit in 1966 and was able to travel into exile in the United States with one of the "flights to freedom" practiced under the presidencies of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon for family reunification , after being used for this purpose by the mother of one living in Miami Girlfriend had been adopted as a daughter. She settled in New York , where she continued her acting training and worked as a stage actress and director. In 1969 she teamed up with Manuel Martín and founded the theater project Teatro Dúo , one of the first Hispanic American theater groups in New York.

In the mid-1980s she withdrew from the theater and devoted herself to poetry. In 1986 Alabau made a very successful debut with her anthology of poems "Electra y Clitemnestra". The central themes of her poems are lesbian love, eroticism and intimacy. Her volume of poems Volver (2012) deals with exile and the relationship to home. It was written after Alabau's first trip to Cuba in the 1990s, after an absence of more than two decades.

In 1996 she completely withdrew from the literary business and until 2009 was solely responsible for rescuing abandoned pets. In 2009 she started writing poetry again. After 28 years in Manhattan , she has lived in the artists' village of Woodstock in the US state of New York since 1996 .

Works

  • Electra y Clitemnestra. Poema . Maitén Books, New York 1986.
  • La extremaunción diaria . Poetry book, Rondas, Madrid 1986.
  • Ras . Medusa, New York 1987.
  • Hermana . Betania, Madrid 1989, ISBN 84-86662-96-6 .
  • Hemos llegado a Ilión . Betania, Madrid 1991, ISBN 84-86662-91-5 .
  • Love . La Torre de Papel, Coral Gables 1993.
  • Dos mujeres. Betania, Madrid 2011.
  • Volver. Betania, Madrid 2012.

literature

  • Eladio Cortés u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Latin Theater . Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 2003, ISBN 0-313-29041-5 (English)
  • Elena M. Martinez: Two Poetry Books of Magali Alabau. In: Confluencia, Vol. 8 (1992), No. 1. S 155–158 (English)
  • Elena M. Martinez: Erotismo en la poesia de Magaly Alabau . In: Revista Iberoamericana , Vol. 65 (1999), No. 187, p. 395 ff. (Spanish)
  • Emmanuel S. Nelson (Ed.): Latin American writers on gay and lesbian themes. A bio-critical source book . Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 1994, ISBN 0-313-28479-2 (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matías Montes Huidobro and Yara González Montes (eds.): Celebrando a Virgilio. Tomo 2 p. 34f, Plaza, 2013 (Spanish)
  2. ↑ a b c d Félix Luis Viera: Magali Alabau, Nueva York . In: Cubaencuentro from January 16, 2012, accessed on September 24, 2013 (Spanish)
  3. ↑ Matías Montes Huidobro and Yara González Montes (eds.): Celebrando a Virgilio. Tomo 2 p. 35f, Plaza, 2013 (Spanish)
  4. ^ Bonnie Zimmerman and George E. Haggerty: Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. Volume 1, p. 439 (English)
  5. ↑ a b Luis de la Paz: 5 preguntas a Magali Alabau . In: Diario de las Américas of January 26, 2013, accessed via Artefactus Magazine on September 24, 2013 (Spanish)
personal data
SURNAME Alabau, Magali
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban actress, director and poet
DATE OF BIRTH 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Cienfuegos , central Cuba