Virgilio Piñera
Virgilio Piñera Llera (born August 4, 1912 in Cárdenas , † October 18, 1979 in Havana ) was a Cuban writer and poet .
Life
Piñera's father was a railroad engineer and his mother a teacher. He studied at the University of Havana . When he refused to defend his dissertation, it was difficult for him to find suitable employment and he was dependent on financial support from friends and relatives. Piñera did not belong to any literary group and it is difficult to assign him to artistic and philosophical movements. His frequent problems with the Castro regime are the result of his refusal to follow the party line.
In the 1950s Piñera lived in Buenos Aires, where he met Jorge Luis Borges and published his work in the renowned magazine Sur . His time in Argentina and his friendship with Borges and others in Buenos Aires, including the exiled Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz , had an impact on his work.
In the course of the Cuban Revolution , after Fulgencio Batista's flight, Piñera returned to Cuba in early 1959. In addition to his literary work, he worked as an editor for Revolución , the official daily of the July 26th Movement , and its renowned cultural supplement, Lunes de Revolución , which was discontinued in 1960.
When, in June 1961, Fidel Castro told the Cuban intellectuals gathered in the National Library that from now on their work had to be subordinated to the interests of the revolution, Piñera was one of the few people present who dared to openly contradict: “I don't know how you are, but I'm scared, very scared. ”In the same year he was imprisoned for“ political and moral crimes ”. After his release he became a marginal figure with few defenders in the government. Nevertheless, in 1969 he won Cuba's most important literary award, the Premio Casa de las Américas , for his play Dos viejos pánicos . In the five-person jury, the Spaniard Max Aub , the Uruguayan Hiber Conteris and the Guatemalan Manuel Galich voted for Piñera.
His work influenced, among others, Reinaldo Arenas , in his autobiographical novel Before Night falls Piñera plays a role.
Works
Published in German:
"Small maneuvers", Suhrkamp 1990
literature
- Thomas F. Anderson: Everything in Its Place: The Life and Works of Virgilio Piñera. Associated Univ. Presses, 2006
Web links
- Virgilio Piñera Llera in the Cuban state online encyclopedia EcuRed (Spanish)
- Virgilio Piñera on Find A Grave
- http://www.fflch.usp.br/sitesint/virgilio/ (in Spanish with list of works)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Yoani Sánchez: "I'm afraid, very afraid", In: Taz.de of July 16, 2011, accessed on January 12, 2016
- ↑ [biography on http://www.bridica.com/EBchecked/topic/848857/Virgilio-Pinera ]
- ↑ Manuel Aznar Soler: Los laberintos del exilio. Renacimiento, Sevilla 2003, p. 334 (Spanish)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Piñera, Virgilio |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Piñera Llera, Virgilio |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cuban writer and poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th August 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cárdenas , Cuba |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 18, 1979 |
| Place of death | Havana , Cuba |