Cuban Writer F. Mond Dies

August 22, 2023

Author of books such as "Con perdón de los terrícolas", "¿Dónde está mi Habana?" and "Cecilia después o ¿Por qué la tierra?", his literary work was developed essentially from science fiction.

Cuban writer Félix Mondéjar, who signed his books as F. Mond, passed away on the morning of this Tuesday in Havana. He was 82 years old.

The publisher Gente Nueva announced the news on Facebook with a poetic farewell in which it recalls passages from his work, developed essentially from science fiction.

"No one saw the spacecraft. Leaving must not have been easy for him, after all it was eighty-two terrestrial years. He only left behind his alter ego Monsieur Larx, the robot with human appearance, French bearing and expression of a 'zero' on his face like someone who is always communicating with some computer".

Mondéjar, born in Los Arabos, Matanzas, published in 1979 Con perdón de los terrícolas, the first work in his series about the planet Korad, directly influenced by his countryman Oscar Hurtado, who in the sixties was a reference in fantasy and science fiction literature.

"I liked so much what Oscar Hurtado wrote that I said: I have to get inside this world. Even though I was completely convinced that what was there was false, it was pure fiction", he said in an interview recently published by El Caimán Barbudo.

In that same interview he complained that on the island classic or important works in Cuban literature are not reprinted.

"Sometimes I get the idea that there's someone who buys 30 thousand copies, takes them and burns them…I go to the bookstore, I ask 'do you have any books by F. Mond?' and they always answer me, 'no man, no, they ran out a long time ago'", he said.

In 1979 he received a mention in Science Fiction Literature at the Premio David.

Among F. Mond's works are ¿Dónde está mi Habana? (1980), Cecilia después o ¿Por qué la tierra? (1983), Krónicas koradianas (1988) and Holocausto (2000).

His most recent book is titled Hasta que la muerte nos una (Gente Nueva, 2017). He also published in periodicals, and collaborated with the humorous magazine Zig-zag.