“In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Cuban-born writer Reinaldo Arenas with our guests Ann Tashi Slater and Peter Johnson. Arenas was born in the Cuban countryside where he spent a lot of time in nature fostering his creativity and imagination. He originally sympathized with Fidel Castro’s revolution, but quickly became disillusioned when he gained power. Due to his open homosexuality and anti-Castro themes in his writing, Arenas was persecuted and spent many years in some of the worst prisons in Cuba. He became an exile, a ghost, as he says. Arenas escaped to the United States during the Mariel boatlift of 1980, eventually settling in New York City. Sadly, he became a victim of the AIDS epidemic, contracting the disease and ultimately ending his life after finishing his memoir Before Night Falls. Remarkably, this entire time, Arenas never stopped writing.” (American Writers Museum)