JUAN GOYTISOLO
687
both cynical and corrosive, and he knew the Soviet bloc languages
and mentalities, having spent a year in the Soviet Union working as
a proofreader for the weekly magazine,
Novedades.
That experience
in Russia had tramautized him. I remember Heberto's remarks to
me during a Gallimard garden cocktail party. He stared at the liter–
ary crowd lolling about the well-kept turf, balancing the customary
glasses of champagne while chattering confidently. Laughing, he sar–
donically muttered, "Ah- if they only knew!" Having just returned
from the "society of the future," he had found most of the people at
the party politically inane. But it was also like Heberto to place
himself squarely in the jaws of the lion and return to Cuba. Clearly
he hadn't taken even the minimum of precautions, but kept openly
voicing his opinions until, like other independent souls in Cuba at
that time, he was arrested.
As Mario Vargas Llosa had the whole text of Padilla's confes–
sion, I was able to read about the complete proceedings of Heberto's
"self-criticism." The shocking and ridiculous ritual enacted at UNEAC
(Cuban National Council for Education and Culture) has made that
memorable evening one of the worst moments in the history of the
Cuban Revolution. And all those involved in the Padilla "confession,"
whether as witnesses or judges, have come out of that event stained
permanently and morally. There, in Mario's apartment, I was also
able to read Castro's diatribe against "bourgeois intellectuals, shame–
less pseudo-leftists living gloriously in Paris, Rome, or London in–
stead of fighting in the front lines ... CIA agents and libelists," ho–
mosexuality, extravagant dress, exotic African religions, "intellectual
rats," and "agents of imperialism." His housecleaning shopping list
began to resemble the ravings usually mouthed by fascist dictators.
Obviously Padilla's tragic, humiliating position, coupled with
Castro's attack on our letter, needed a reply. In Mario's apartment
Hans Magnus Enzenberger, my brother Luis, Castellet, Carlos Bar–
ral, Mario and I, drafted a second letter to Fidel Castro. Instead
of addressing ourselves to specific failures of the Cuban Revolution,
we decided to limit our answer to the UNEAC confession show. At
the last minute we realized our focus had been too narrow, and we
added the following paragraph which, probably, should have been
made the main issue:
The contempt for human dignity involved in forcing a man to
ridiculously accuse himself of the worst sorts of crimes and be–
trayals isn't shocking to us because it has involved a fellow
