Padilla, Heberto

▪ 2001

      Cuban poet (b. Jan. 20, 1932, Puerta de Golpe, Pinar del Río province, Cuba—d. Sept. 25, 2000, Auburn, Ala.), rose to international prominence in 1971 as a symbol of intellectual repression under the regime of Fidel Castro after his criticism of the government resulted in his imprisonment and in the banning of his works in Cuba. This course of events, known worldwide as the “Padilla Affair,” began in 1968 when Padilla's volume of poetry Fuera del juego was awarded Cuba's highest literary prize by the state-sponsored Union of Cuban Writers and Artists. The government was so upset by the award that an appendix denouncing the work as counterrevolutionary was added to the book by its publisher. From that point on, Padilla was under constant state surveillance, and he was later arrested when it was discovered that he was writing yet another inflammatory book. Soon thereafter, Padilla was forced to read a 4,000-word confession of his “crimes” on television; it was a statement so obviously written by someone else that many prominent intellectuals the world over who had been supporters of the Cuban Revolution turned away from Castro and banded together in protest of Padilla's treatment. After being released from prison, Padilla was kept under virtual house arrest until he was granted permission in 1980 to move to the U.S. There, Padilla held various academic posts and published many other works, including several volumes of poetry, the novel En mi jardín pastan los héroes (1981; Heroes Are Grazing in My Garden, 1984), and La mala memoria (1989; Self-Portrait of the Other, 1990), an autobiographical portrait of his life under Castro. His works have been translated into 14 languages.

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▪ Cuban poet

born January 20, 1932, Puerta de Golpe, Pinar del Río, Cuba

died September 25, 2000, Auburn, Alabama, U.S.

      controversial poet who came to international attention for a political scandal in revolutionary Cuba that is known as the “Padilla affair.”

      After elementary and secondary education in his native province of Pinar del Río, Padilla studied law at the University of Havana but did not finish a degree. From 1949 to 1952 and 1956 to 1959, he lived in the United States. After the 1959 revolution, Padilla returned to Cuba, where he published a book of poems, El justo tiempo humano (“The Fair Human Time”). He traveled through Europe representing Cuba's Ministry of Commerce and as a correspondent for Cuban publications. In 1968 his book of poems Fuera del juego (“Out of the Game”) was awarded the yearly poetry prize offered by the Writers' Union, but the book appeared with an afterword denouncing it as counterrevolutionary. Selections from El justo tiempo humano and Fuera del juego were published in English translation as Sent Off the Field: A Selection from the Poetry of Heberto Padilla (1972).

      Under attack by the authorities, Padilla was imprisoned on vague charges in 1971, which brought about vigorous protests by individuals, organizations, and governments. Many of those condemning the Cuban regime had been its supporters, and the controversy divided Latin American intellectuals and artists along party lines. Padilla was made to read a public confession accusing himself and others of vaguely defined attitudes and activities contrary to Fidel Castro's regime, which increased the protests abroad. In 1980 Padilla was allowed to leave the country for the United States, where he taught at a number of colleges and universities and published an autobiographical novel about his life in revolutionary Cuba, En mi jardín pastan los héroes (1981; Heroes Are Grazing in My Garden). In 1981 he also published a volume of selected poems, El hombre junto al mar, which later appeared in a bilingual edition (Legacies: Selected Poems [1982]), with English translations by Alastair Reid and Andrew Hurley. In 1989 he published a memoir, La mala memoria (translated as Self-Portrait of the Other). A Spanish/English edition of poetry titled A Fountain, a House of Stone appeared in 1991, with English translations by Alastair Reid and Alexander Coleman.

      Padilla's verse is deceptively simple and incorporates events of current history in its discourse. It is a poetry in which the poet appears committed to daily life and fearful of the encroachment of politics, which he, at the same time, knows he cannot escape.

Roberto González Echevarría

 

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