JUAN GOYTISOLO
681
from Cuba and brought me personal regards from the Cuban poet,
Heberto Padilla, who, although already a controversial figure there,
had not yet been arrested.
During our discussion about the journal, I stressed that our
main purpose should be what Sartre, several years before at the Len–
ingrad Writer's Conference, had called "the demilitarization of
culture." We were as concerned by the grave social and political
problems mounting in Latin America as by the hardening of the Cu–
ban Revolution which had created a cold war climate in the world of
Hispanic letters . But we still believed that an independent publica–
tion such as
L£bre,
which would continue to give
cr£t£cal
support to
Cuba, thus preventing its cultural isolation, would, at the same
time, stabilize the position of those independent intellectuals such as
Padilla who remained in Cuba. Heberto had already gotten himself
in hot water there by his outspoken support for Guillermo Cabrera
Infante. (The author of
Three Sad T£gers
and former Cuban diplomat
was one of the first Cuban writers to blow the whistle on the revolu–
tion and had gone into self-exile in London.) Indeed, it was almost
inevitable that the informal conversation in Cortazar's garden should
be over whether or not to include Cabrera Infante in the editorial
board. Julio firmly announced it would be he
or
Cabrera Infante .
I don't remember what the others said- except that the Chilean novel–
ist, Jose Donoso, was as surprised and irritated by Cortazar's vehe–
mence as I had been . With the advantage of hindsight, I realize that
we immediately should have stopped our plan to publish
L£bre.
But,
at that time, the strength of Cortazar's political arguments mistakenly
made me accede . What had convinced me then was the idea- although
a bit risky- that a dialogue between Cuba and the non-Communist
Left in Latin America and Europe would be worthwhile.
I felt that in maintaining a link with the Cuban Revolution we
would be able to help those intellectuals in Cuba who were living in
increasingly bad conditions, and this overcame my repugnance at the
conditions being exacted . Thus, from its very birth
L£bre
was the
fruit of intrigues and compromises. Castro's hardline pro-Soviet po–
sition during the Czechoslovakian coup had produced increasing dis–
illusionment and alarm among writers. Even by then, roughly speak–
ing, our group seemed to split into two directions. There were those
writers (later associated with
L£bre)
like myself, Octavio Paz, Carlos
Fuentes, Garda Marquez, Jose Donoso, and Severo Sarduy who
continued to publish in another "Boom" literary magazine,
Mundo
Nuevo,
despite the fact that it and its editor- Emir Rodfguez Mon-
