Virgilio Domingo Piñera Llera

Born: August 4, 1912, Cárdenas, Cuba

Died: October 18th, 1979, Havana, Cuba

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Virgilio Piñera was a Cuban author, playwright, poet and activist. He was born in Cárdenas (western Cuba) and raised in a modest home: his father served as a public servant and his mother worked as a teacher. After finishing his education at the University in Havana, Piñera joined a coalition of students and intellectuals who utilized their creative mediums to critique Fulgencio Batista and his numerous puppet regimes.

 

Piñera wrote Electra Garrigó in 1942 as a call for political rebellion, unknowingly predicting the revolution that would occur in the next decade. On October 23, 1948, the adaptation premiered in Havana, Cuba. Around this time, Piñera was exiled to Argentina, where he continued advocating on behalf of groups marginalized by totalitarian regimes.

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Piñera was a member of the “Origenes” literary group, and co-founded the journal Ciclón in 1955. He returned to Havana on the eve of the Cuban Revolution in 1958. Following the transition of power to Castro and his rebels, Electra Garrigó resurfaced as a powerful symbol of the revolutionary spirit. The play was celebrated as the birth of modern Cuban theatre.

 

Continuing his penchant for holding his government accountable, Piñera was present at Fidel Castro’s “Words to the Intellectuals” speech, where the leader famously declared “Within the Revolution, everything. Against the Revolution, nothing.” Piñera, a member of the gay community, was first to voice his apprehension about the inclusion and freedoms under the new regime. When it became clear that Piñera would be critical of any government under which he lived, the playwright quickly fell out of popularity with Castro’s party. He was briefly jailed in 1961 for “political and moral crimes”, a thinly veiled aggression towards his homosexuality.

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Due to his radical politics and sexual preferences, Piñera continued to be censured by his country’s rulers and died without any official recognition. Posthumously, his work has been rediscovered and celebrated in his native country and continues to grow popularity. His other works include Cuentos fríos, La carne de René, Presiones y Diamantes , Las pequeñas maniobras, and Dos viejos pánicos.