Padilla: Cuba's problems must be resolved among Cubans

August 6, 2021

The Cuban writer Leonardo Padura, winner of the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature (2015), believes that his novels are "among the most radical documents that could have been written" about a Cuba today in turmoil whose problems "should be resolved among Cubans."

"I believe that my novels written and many of them published in Cuba, such as 'The Man Who Loved Dogs', 'Heretics' or 'The Novel of My Life', are among the most radical documents that could have been written and said about this country. And that gives me a lot of peace of mind," the author says in an interview with Efe.

In his family home in the Havana neighborhood of Mantilla, three weeks after thousands of people took to the streets of the country to protest shortages and demand freedoms, Padura reflects on the extreme polarization the island is experiencing, which he hopes can "be resolved among Cubans," including the exile community.

"I fairly frequently receive attacks from one extreme and the other, because I try to be fair and speak about truths on which there is a certain consensus. It is known that truth is not absolute, what is absolute is the lie. And in none of my texts, neither in my novels nor journalistic works, do I need lies to speak about Cuba," he says.

And as a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, he considers that "when someone wants to criticize Cuba they don't have to exaggerate, they only have to tell the truth."

"I am very much at peace with myself, I cannot satisfy all positions, I don't want to take either extreme, I am very afraid of fundamentalisms and extremes because they start from the premise that their reason is the only possible reason, and I believe there is always more than one reason and there should be dialogue between these reasons," he points out.

The protests surprised Padura while he was watching the Euros. "Suddenly they cut the broadcast and the president (Miguel Díaz-Canel) comes on and I find out what is happening."

Shortly after, the authorities blocked internet access and the information that arrived was confusing and "very distorted, very partial, very aggressive in some cases and it was hard to figure out what was happening," he recalls.

His first impression, which he described a week after the demonstrations in a text published on the La Joven Cuba platform, "was that there had been a cry that came from the bowels of a society that demanded other ways of managing life in a general sense, and economic, social, and political issues come into that..."

The unjustified delay in economic reforms has created "something that is evident": the growth of inequalities and poverty, reflected in the novel "The Transparency of Time."

Thus, Padura mentions impoverished settlements in Havana where "you realize that this is not the country we have worked for, that we have dreamed of, for which so many sacrifices have been made. Solutions must be found for these people (...)."

The demonstrations, in his view, channeled the exhaustion of waiting for a prosperity that never comes and made evident the lack of communication between those in power and the feelings of the citizenry.

"So much so that I think those in power were surprised by that demonstration because it wasn't that people started shouting something in a line, it's that in many parts of the country people came out to ask for things, to ask for freedom for example, and it is very serious when people shout asking for freedom."

The writer is concerned that this feeling "not be understood and processed in the best way, because there is a social magma in which these intolerances and extremes we spoke of at the beginning exist and could be what prevail and that would be the worst."

"Violent responses are in no way the cure this country needs, which is not the same as it was 15 days ago. It is a different country and it must be handled in a different way," he adds.

He also points out that what has happened was already in the making, as demonstrated by the concentration of young creators on November 27 in front of the Cuban Ministry of Culture.

"There they spoke of the need for dialogue that in the end amounted to a few words and very few solutions, and when people ask for freedom of expression, of thought, of opinion, they are asking for something that belongs to them, something that I believe cannot be denied them in any system or any country," the author emphasizes.

About all those young people who protested on July 11, Padura warns that the "least desirable" alternative is that they be marginalized or "even imprisoned for their social or political position" and that due to the prolonged "bleeding" the island is suffering, many—including the most educated—end up leaving.

The author, who in 1996 became Cuba's first "independent writer," believes that what has happened now will be reflected in his literature, although "perhaps not in a direct way."

"I have tried to practice my independence and my freedom for many years. I believe that for any creator the need for freedom of expression and thought is fundamental," although with limits regarding "homophobic attitudes, xenophobic attitudes, attitudes that are in some way fascistic."

"Besides, life is too short for us to be limiting ourselves in as many things as we have to limit ourselves because of the social contract that exists," he concludes.