CARLOS RIPOLL
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tend to dwell on the presence of "revolutionary signs," the writer's
"testimony of personal and emotional involvement in the struggle,"
"the simplicity and directness of the language" with which the work
succeeds in moving readers an_d spectators.
Another now-customary approach is to compare Cuban writing
with the "reactionary nature" of works by "commercial artists" in cap–
italist countries. Without mentioning names, the critics take "bour–
geois writers" to task for their immorality, escapism, irrationality,
formalism, lack of social conscience, etc. When foreign works are
analyzed, they are generally far removed from any controversial
subject or written by authors sympathetic to the Castro regime. Oth–
ers are excluded from the critics' view, just as they are from stores
and libraries on the island.
Cuba has no
samizdat.
Because the punishment for unauthor–
ized publication and even possession of unauthorized literature is
severe, works not published by the state are not reproduced and
circulated clandestinely except in the most intimate circles of friends.
As a result, there are many young writers who have never seen their
works in print and others whose writing was published during the
early years of the revolution but who have effectively been silenced
smce.
Some find themselves cut off after an encounter with the cen–
sors. Among the more pitiful cases was that of Virgilio Pifiera, the
most highly acclaimed Cuban playwright of this century, who died
in 1979. Pifiera's misfortunes began with his dismissal from his post
for failure to conform to the "parameters" for political culture estab–
lished in 1971. Thereafter Pifiera was prevented from accepting invi–
tations to speak abroad, reduced to living in miserable conditions,
and kept under surveillance for the rest of his days. Although unable
to publish his works, he nevertheless continued to write and, judging
from his letters to friends abroad seems to have left a substantial
number of plays and poems. Unfortunately, all of the manuscripts
were confiscated upon Pifiera's death, which itself was apparently
seen as a potentially subversive act, for the State Security police se–
questered his body until the moment of his perfunctory funeral.
Another case that illustrates the measures taken to prevent the
development of
samizdat
in Cuba is that of Amaro G6mez Boix, a
journalist for the Cuban Broadcasting Institute in Havana who was
dismissed several years ago for disaffection with the regime. In lei–
sure moments at home he wrote works criticizing the Communist
system without, of course, thinking of publishing or circulating them
