Education
He studied philosophy and literature without completing a degree.
He studied philosophy and literature without completing a degree.
Arenas produced a significant body of work. In addition to significant poetic efforts ("El Central", "Leprosorio"), his Pentagonia is a set of five novels that comprise a "secret history" of post-revolutionary Cuba. In 1987, Arenas was diagnosed with AIDS, but he continued to write and speak out against the Cuban government.
He rebelled against the Cuban government.
Quotations:
Mine is not an obedient writing. I think that literature as any art has to be irreverent.
I have always considered it despicable to grovel for your life as if life were a favor. If you cannot live the way you want, there is no point in living.
Before getting to my mother's house, I would always think of her on the porch or even on the street, sweeping. She had a light way of sweeping, as if removing the dirt were not as important as moving the broom over the ground. Her way of sweeping was symbolic; so airy, so fragile, with a broom she tried to sweep away all the horrors, all the loneliness, all the misery that had accompanied her all her life...
He was a gay.