ON CASTRO’S STREET: Markus in one of the clasic cars found all over Cuba
As a teenager, I was greatly affected by Before Night Falls, the harrowing and sexually explicit memoir of the gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. He suffered for decades under Fidel Castro’s regime after smuggling out two manuscripts of novels that were then published outside Cuba. His books were critically acclaimed but resulted in him being imprisoned for “ideological deviation.”