Writer Leonardo Padura chronicles daily life in Cuba as his detective ɼhange moi' solves gripping crimes
HAVANA — His novels recount ugly murders, thefts, ripoffs, bribes and humiliating secrets and techniques. But those are not even the most vital themes in the stories advised by award-successful Cuban writer Leonardo Padura.
For the very last four decades, Padura, 68, has managed to turn his sequence of detective thrillers into a social and political chronicle of Cuba, especially Havana, where by he has lived all his life.
The island he depicts in his books — which have been translated to dozens of languages — is a blend of financial deprivation, Afro-descendant syncretism, corruption, mischief, uplifting songs and rising inequality — all seasoned by a revolution that marked the 20th century.
“I create about the issues of men and women in Cuban modern society. And often, in my textbooks, extra than spectacular conflicts concerning the people, you will uncover a social conflict among the figures and their historic time,” Padura instructed The Involved Push in a current job interview at his house in Mantilla, the populous Havana neighborhood where by he was born, lifted and married.
The scent of freshly brewed espresso is in the air, as nicely as the chirping sound of the birds that inhabit the patio where his pet dogs are buried. In a close by studio, his wife, screenwriter Lucía López Coll, works on a pc.
It truly is also in this residence wherever Mario Conde, the principal character of Padura’s work, was born. The downtrodden, nostalgic, chain-cigarette smoking detective has accompanied Padura given that 1991, when “Past Perfect” — the to start with of the “Havana Quartet” series that includes Conde as the most important protagonist — was released.
Holding observe of Detective Conde is practically like using the pulse of Cuba in the very last couple years.
His last look was in the 2020 novel “Personas Decentes” (“Respectable People today”) in which, now over 60 many years previous, Conde receives associated in the investigation of a murder — and corruption case — against the backdrop of the 2016 historic stop by of previous U.S. President Barack Obama and the Rolling Stones to the island.
“This character arrives from a community equivalent to mine,” Padura suggests of Conde. “He is a person of my generation. … His see of reality has advanced since I have progressed, and his feeling of disenchantment has a large amount to do with the way we have been dwelling all these many years.”
Reflecting on Cuba’s condition just after the tightening of U.S. sanctions throughout the administration of President Donald Trump and the impression of the coronavirus pandemic, Padura states the island has barely crawled out of the disaster and has not yet been equipped to get back on its toes.
He factors at the absence of meals and drugs, growing selling prices and deteriorating health and schooling systems, though Cubans grapple with fuel shortages and continual blackouts.
“There is a historic tiredness,” he claims. “People are weary, they have no choices and they glimpse for 1 by emigrating.”
The smooth-spoken chronicler highlights yet one more effect of Cuba’s ongoing economic crisis: A wave of common protests and demonstrations that had not been observed in a long time.
“The most important cry was for food items and energy,” Padura remembers about the protests in 2021 and, extra a short while ago, in March. “But individuals also screamed ‘Freedom!’ The absence of foodstuff and energy may possibly have been solved by correcting some thermoelectric plants and with a minor rice and sugar … but the other factor has not been talked about — and I imagine it can be something that should really be mentioned in depth.”
Born in 1955, Leonardo de la Caridad Padura Fuentes researched literature at the University of Havana and labored as a journalist for condition-owned media in the 1980s.
He has gained a quantity of crucial prizes, like the Hammett Prize, awarded by the Global Affiliation of Criminal offense Writers, on two events (1998 and 2006) Cuba’s National Prize for Literature In 2012, and the Princess of Asturias Award for literature in Spain in 2015.
In 2016, Netflix released “Four Seasons in Havana,” a miniseries that includes detective Conde.
In spite of the worldwide recognition, only a couple of Padura’s textbooks have been posted in Cuba, and when they do, only a number of copies are printed. Also, since of his essential, often dark view of the island, his work is scarcely promoted or outlined in the formal media.
Not like quite a few writers and intellectuals who in latest several years resolved to go away Cuba, Padura — who travels extensively — is determined to keep.
“I have numerous factors for residing outside the house of Cuba but I assume the kinds that maintain me here weigh additional seriously. One of them is my sense of belonging,” he claims. “I have a solid sense of belonging to a actuality, to a tradition, to a way of viewing everyday living, to a way of expressing myself.”
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HAVANA — His novels recount ugly murders, thefts, ripoffs, bribes and humiliating secrets and techniques. But those are not even the most vital themes in the stories advised by award-successful Cuban writer Leonardo Padura.
For the very last four decades, Padura, 68, has managed to turn his sequence of detective thrillers into a social and political chronicle of Cuba, especially Havana, where by he has lived all his life.
The island he depicts in his books — which have been translated to dozens of languages — is a blend of financial deprivation, Afro-descendant syncretism, corruption, mischief, uplifting songs and rising inequality — all seasoned by a revolution that marked the 20th century.
“I create about the issues of men and women in Cuban modern society. And often, in my textbooks, extra than spectacular conflicts concerning the people, you will uncover a social conflict among the figures and their historic time,” Padura instructed The Involved Push in a current job interview at his house in Mantilla, the populous Havana neighborhood where by he was born, lifted and married.
The scent of freshly brewed espresso is in the air, as nicely as the chirping sound of the birds that inhabit the patio where his pet dogs are buried. In a close by studio, his wife, screenwriter Lucía López Coll, works on a pc.
It truly is also in this residence wherever Mario Conde, the principal character of Padura’s work, was born. The downtrodden, nostalgic, chain-cigarette smoking detective has accompanied Padura given that 1991, when “Past Perfect” — the to start with of the “Havana Quartet” series that includes Conde as the most important protagonist — was released.
Holding observe of Detective Conde is practically like using the pulse of Cuba in the very last couple years.
His last look was in the 2020 novel “Personas Decentes” (“Respectable People today”) in which, now over 60 many years previous, Conde receives associated in the investigation of a murder — and corruption case — against the backdrop of the 2016 historic stop by of previous U.S. President Barack Obama and the Rolling Stones to the island.
“This character arrives from a community equivalent to mine,” Padura suggests of Conde. “He is a person of my generation. … His see of reality has advanced since I have progressed, and his feeling of disenchantment has a large amount to do with the way we have been dwelling all these many years.”
Reflecting on Cuba’s condition just after the tightening of U.S. sanctions throughout the administration of President Donald Trump and the impression of the coronavirus pandemic, Padura states the island has barely crawled out of the disaster and has not yet been equipped to get back on its toes.
He factors at the absence of meals and drugs, growing selling prices and deteriorating health and schooling systems, though Cubans grapple with fuel shortages and continual blackouts.
“There is a historic tiredness,” he claims. “People are weary, they have no choices and they glimpse for 1 by emigrating.”
The smooth-spoken chronicler highlights yet one more effect of Cuba’s ongoing economic crisis: A wave of common protests and demonstrations that had not been observed in a long time.
“The most important cry was for food items and energy,” Padura remembers about the protests in 2021 and, extra a short while ago, in March. “But individuals also screamed ‘Freedom!’ The absence of foodstuff and energy may possibly have been solved by correcting some thermoelectric plants and with a minor rice and sugar … but the other factor has not been talked about — and I imagine it can be something that should really be mentioned in depth.”
Born in 1955, Leonardo de la Caridad Padura Fuentes researched literature at the University of Havana and labored as a journalist for condition-owned media in the 1980s.
He has gained a quantity of crucial prizes, like the Hammett Prize, awarded by the Global Affiliation of Criminal offense Writers, on two events (1998 and 2006) Cuba’s National Prize for Literature In 2012, and the Princess of Asturias Award for literature in Spain in 2015.
In 2016, Netflix released “Four Seasons in Havana,” a miniseries that includes detective Conde.
In spite of the worldwide recognition, only a couple of Padura’s textbooks have been posted in Cuba, and when they do, only a number of copies are printed. Also, since of his essential, often dark view of the island, his work is scarcely promoted or outlined in the formal media.
Not like quite a few writers and intellectuals who in latest several years resolved to go away Cuba, Padura — who travels extensively — is determined to keep.
“I have numerous factors for residing outside the house of Cuba but I assume the kinds that maintain me here weigh additional seriously. One of them is my sense of belonging,” he claims. “I have a solid sense of belonging to a actuality, to a tradition, to a way of viewing everyday living, to a way of expressing myself.”
___
Observe AP’s protection of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america