<\/p>\n
<\/strong>\u00d3 <\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No puedo olvidar mis primeros a\u00f1os en un taller literario. Se trataba de uno de esos talleres literarios, por suerte, con asesores especiales y situaciones especiales, que no abundaban en la isla, como pude comprobar a\u00f1os despu\u00e9s, cuando empez\u00f3 una guerra sin cuartel contra el sistema de talleres literarios y muchos escritores que defend\u00edamos ese modo de perfeccionar el talento creativo de los j\u00f3venes nos tuvimos que enfrentar a otros que, m\u00e1s que pertenecer, tuvieron que padecer lo que se consideraba un paso imprescindible en la isla para los aspirantes a escritores.<\/p>\n Nuestro taller fue especial porque reuni\u00f3 a gente especial. Nunca tendr\u00e9 tiempo para agradecer los esfuerzos de tit\u00e1n que hac\u00eda cada semana la escritora y amiga Aida Bahr, enfrent\u00e1ndose a una burocracia feroz que impon\u00eda cientos de barreras, con el objetivo de que otros escritores, muy j\u00f3venes entonces (nosotros: Alberto Garrido, Marcos Gonz\u00e1lez, Jos\u00e9 Mariano Torralbas, Ricardo Hodel\u00edn) supi\u00e9ramos que escribir requer\u00eda de una seriedad y un compromiso intelectual al cual s\u00f3lo se pod\u00eda llegar siendo implacables con aquellos primeros textos. Nunca olvidar\u00e9 el cari\u00f1o del viejo Jos\u00e9 Soler Puig en nuestros encuentros; ni los consejos y cr\u00edticas duras de ese inolvidable amigo que fue Jorge Luis Hern\u00e1ndez, a quien alguna vez he de retribuir todo el afecto que ac\u00e1 en la tierra no pude darle; ni la dedicaci\u00f3n transformada en hermandad de mi primera asesora literaria, Maritza Ram\u00edrez; ni las sabias ense\u00f1anzas de Luis Carlos Su\u00e1rez y Daysi Cu\u00e9; y mucho menos podr\u00e9 borrar aquella locura que nos hizo fundar el grupo literario SEIS DEL OCHENTA, integrado por Torralbas, Garrido, Marcos, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Poveda, Radhis Cur\u00ed, precisamente porque la fraternidad que nos uni\u00f3 entonces sigui\u00f3 creciendo lejos de los celos, las envidias y las guerras intestinas que caracterizaban a otros grupos literarios de esas \u00e9pocas.<\/p>\n Eso hizo doble mi alegr\u00eda, a\u00f1os despu\u00e9s, justamente en 1999, cuando Alberto Garrido y yo decidimos concursar en el Premio Literario Casa de las Am\u00e9ricas, \u00e9l con un libro de cuentos y yo con mi ya muy conocido testimonio Habana Babilonia o Prostitutas en Cuba<\/em>, y todas las noticias extraoficiales nos daban como ganadores de ambos premios: hab\u00edamos empezado juntos y obten\u00edamos juntos el mayor premio literario que se conced\u00eda en el pa\u00eds a un escritor latinoamericano.<\/p>\n De eso quiero hablar en esta ocasi\u00f3n.<\/p>\n Y aunque es un episodio que prefiero no recordar, un tema que eludo siempre, creo que ahora, con la pronta publicaci\u00f3n de Habana Babilonia o Prostitutas en Cuba <\/em>por la editorial Planeta y ante las preguntas de muchos lectores (\u201c\u00bfcu\u00e1l es la historia de ese libro?\u201d, preguntan muchos, cada quien a su modo), debo poner sobre la mesa algunas cartas que, por cuestiones de \u00e9tica, he mantenido en el silencio.<\/p>\n En 1999, luego de cinco a\u00f1os de trabajo (que incluyeron investigaciones period\u00edsticas, entrevistas, b\u00fasqueda de informaci\u00f3n oficial y extraoficial en diferentes niveles del pa\u00eds, consulta de fuentes hist\u00f3ricas, de salud y de la pol\u00edtica) termin\u00e9 ese libro, que re\u00fane entrevistas, testimonios, documentos y ensayos acerca del mundo de la prostituci\u00f3n en Cuba, b\u00e1sicamente de la fuerza alcanzada por este fen\u00f3meno a partir de 1990 y hasta la fecha, espec\u00edficamente con el paso de la econom\u00eda cubana a la supervivencia (Cuba no ha salido jam\u00e1s de una econom\u00eda de supervivencia, al menos desde 1959) mediante la llamada \u201cindustria sin chimeneas\u201d, el turismo.<\/p>\n A todo lo largo del libro, y durante siete cap\u00edtulos, se alternan cuatro bloques estructurales: un testimonio largo sobre una de las grandes prostitutas cubanas, muy reconocida y respetada en los 90; un segundo bloque ensay\u00edstico que desarrolla la historia de la prostituci\u00f3n en Cuba hasta la actualidad, partiendo de las primeras \u201cmugeres de la vida\u201d que llegaron a la isla en una de las naves de Crist\u00f3bal Col\u00f3n (hecho, por cierto, curioso y nada explotado por los historiadores); un tercer bloque para testimonios de las distintas prostitutas que me concedieron entrevistas; y un cuarto bloque donde reproduzco una serie de entrevistas a otras personas vinculadas al mundo de la prostituci\u00f3n en Cuba: proxenetas, vendedores clandestinos (de ron, tabaco, m\u00fasica cubana y drogas), due\u00f1os de restaurantes particulares, due\u00f1os de casas de prostituci\u00f3n y de espect\u00e1culos de travestismo, abogados, trabajadores de turismo, etc. El libro consta de m\u00e1s de 300 cuartillas.<\/p>\n Sade nuestro que est\u00e1s en los cielos \u00f3 Prostitutas en Cuba <\/em>(que as\u00ed se titulaba el libro entonces) fue presentado al g\u00e9nero Testimonio del Premio Literario Casa de las Am\u00e9ricas ese mismo a\u00f1o 1999.<\/p>\n Llegado este punto, debo aclarar algo: cuento con las pruebas de que hubo manipulaci\u00f3n por parte del jurado a la hora de valorar mi obra en ese premio que, por si fuera poco, dejaron desierto, pero por razones obvias de la seguridad de personas que me permitieron acceder a esas pruebas, me tomo el derecho de no comentarlas hasta que llegue el momento, pues no pienso dejar que los responsables salgan ilesos de tama\u00f1a barrabasada sin que la justicia (al menos la justicia literaria) les recuerde su triste papel. Ya llegar\u00e1 el momento.<\/p>\n Voy a los hechos: Cierto es que alguien dio a conocer que la obra hab\u00eda sido seleccionada para Premio; cierto es que un rumor demasiado amplio puso en entredicho el desempe\u00f1o del jurado aludiendo a manipulaciones de \u00edndole pol\u00edtica, entre ellas, que el libro no resultaba conveniente a los momentos que atravesaba el pa\u00eds; cierto es que la noticia del premio se reg\u00f3 por La Habana y en la ceremonia de premiaci\u00f3n, cuando el presidente del jurado ley\u00f3 el acta y declar\u00f3 el premio Desierto, se produjo un abucheo que llam\u00f3 la atenci\u00f3n de asistentes y prensa extranjera. Cierto es que al d\u00eda siguiente y durante varios d\u00edas, medios de prensa extranjeros (Miami Herald, Radio y TV Mart\u00ed, una decena de peri\u00f3dicos digitales, etc) consignaron que \u201cun cubano hab\u00eda sido despojado del premio Casa de las Am\u00e9ricas por razones pol\u00edticas\u201d. Cierto es que, en cuesti\u00f3n de un par de meses, recib\u00ed jugosas ofertas desde el exterior para la publicaci\u00f3n del libro, condicionando la edici\u00f3n a la manipulaci\u00f3n pol\u00edtica del texto contra Cuba, por parte de las editoriales que lo asumir\u00edan. Rechac\u00e9 todas esas ofertas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n El nombre actual. <\/strong> Hoy, si apareciera esa persona que hurt\u00f3 mi libro del Premio Casa de las Am\u00e9ricas, le har\u00eda un homenaje de agradecimiento por una raz\u00f3n simple: yo era conocido como escritor en mi pa\u00eds; aunque peque de inmodesto, debo decir que era uno de los m\u00e1s conocidos y mencionados por la cr\u00edtica literaria, pero ese conocimiento era solamente entre los que est\u00e1bamos en el medio y entre quienes le\u00edan, pues en Cuba con los escritores no pasa como sucede con los m\u00fasicos y los deportistas, que son figuras p\u00fablicas. Aunque nos duela decirlo, a la poblaci\u00f3n cubana usted le pregunta por los m\u00e1s promocionados escritores y seguramente obtendr\u00e1 un encogimiento de hombros, y en el mejor de los casos le dir\u00e1n \u201cyo le\u00ed un libro de \u00e9se\u201d.<\/p>\n A partir de la divulgaci\u00f3n clandestina de Habana Babilonia o Prostitutas en Cuba<\/em>, me convert\u00ed (y cito palabras del escritor Guillermo Vidal) \u201cen uno de los escritores m\u00e1s le\u00eddos y m\u00e1s buscados en librer\u00edas de la isla\u201d; a las presentaciones de mis libros, en cualquier lugar del pa\u00eds, asisten cientos y cientos de personas que se pelean por obtener alguno de los pocos ejemplares en venta; y lo peor, o quiz\u00e1s lo m\u00e1s vergonzoso, la censura lanzada contra este libro, la condici\u00f3n de \u201clibro prohibido\u201d, y la difusi\u00f3n boca a boca de las medidas tomadas contra personas que han le\u00eddo el libro, me ha convertido en un mito.<\/p>\n Cito aqu\u00ed algunos de los m\u00e1s hermosos mensajes recibidos:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MANUEL V\u00c1ZQUEZ MONTALB\u00c1N<\/strong> <\/p>\n JES\u00daS D\u00cdAZ<\/strong> <\/p>\n P\u00cdO SERRANO<\/strong> <\/p>\n ANDR\u00c9S JORGE<\/strong> <\/p>\n CARLOS CABRERA <\/strong> <\/p>\n PAQUITO D’RIVERA<\/strong> <\/p>\n SIFREDO ARIEL <\/strong> <\/p>\n GUILLERMO VIDAL <\/strong> <\/p>\n ANTONIO JOS\u00c9 PONTE <\/strong> <\/p>\n JORGE C. OLIVA <\/strong> <\/p>\n DAGOBERTO VALD\u00c9S <\/strong> <\/p>\n Me enorgullece leer que tanta gente que quiero y respeto haya opinado as\u00ed sobre mi libro, aunque le siga pidiendo a mi Dios que me de la humildad necesaria para no ser petulante.<\/p>\n Tambi\u00e9n, intentando ser fiel a esa humildad, confieso que debo agradecer el actual nombre a uno de esos lectores secretos.<\/p>\n Prefiero contar la historia.<\/p>\n En el a\u00f1o 2001, mientras asist\u00eda a la presentaci\u00f3n en la provincia Las Tunas de uno de mis libros publicado por editoriales cubanas: Muchacha azul bajo la lluvia<\/em>, un se\u00f1or de unos cincuenta a\u00f1os se puso en pie desde el p\u00fablico y pidi\u00f3 que yo leyera \u201calgo de Habana Babilonia<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n Pens\u00e9: \u201ccarajo, me ha confundido con otro escritor\u201d, y no recuerdo con qu\u00e9 palabras lo dije, pero se lo hice saber.<\/p>\n \u201cPero usted es Amir Valle\u201d, me increp\u00f3 el hombre, algo molesto. Dije que s\u00ed.<\/p>\n \u201cUsted mismo es el autor de ese libro\u201d, contest\u00f3, \u201ces el libro de las Jineteras\u201d, y acto seguido me cont\u00f3 el fragmento que m\u00e1s lo hab\u00eda impresionado.<\/p>\n Me pareci\u00f3 tan perfecto el t\u00edtulo que \u00e9l mencion\u00f3 que, a mi regreso a La Habana, decid\u00ed cambiarle el nombre al libro. Desde entonces, y gracias a ese lector an\u00f3nimo, este libro se llama Habana Babilonia \u00f3 Prostitutas en Cuba<\/em>. Y esta que he contado, es su historia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Translated by Regina M. Anavy <\/p>\n I will never forget my first years in a literary workshop. It was one of those literary workshops, fortunately, with special advisors and a special status, which did not abound on the island, as I realized years later, when I began a war without quarter against the system of literary workshops and the many writers who defended that way of perfecting the creative talent of the young people we had, pitting them against each other so that, in order to belong, they had to suffer what was considered an indispensable step on the island for anyone aspiring to be a writer.<\/p>\n Our workshop was special because it reunited special people. I would never have enough time to thank my friend, the writer Aida Bahr, for that strength of a titan she showed every week in confronting a fierce bureaucracy that imposed hundreds of barriers, so that other, still very young writers (Alberto Garrido, Marcos Gonz\u00e1lez, Jos\u00e9 Mariano Torralbas, Ricardo Hodel\u00edn) would know that writing required a seriousness and an intellectual compromise that would happen only if we were implacable with our first texts. I will never forget the affection of old Jos\u00e9 Soler Puig in our meetings; nor the advice and hard criticism of that unforgettable friend, Jorge Luis Hern\u00e1ndez, to whom I would like to return the favor of all the affection that I could never give him here on earth; nor the dedication transformed into sisterhood of my first literary advisor, Maritza Ram\u00edrez; nor the wisdom taught by Luis Carlos Su\u00e1rez and Daysi Cu\u00e9; and even less could I erase that insanity that made us found the literary group, SIX OF THE EIGHTY, formed by Torralbas, Garrido, Marcos, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Poveda, Radhis Cur\u00ed, precisely because the brotherhood that united us then continued growing, far from the jealousies, envies and internal wars that characterized other literary groups of those times.<\/p>\n My happiness doubled, years later, exactly in 1999, when Alberto Garrido and I decided to compete for the House of the Americas Literary Prize, he with a book of short stories and I with my already well-known testimony Havana Babylonia or Prostitutes in Cuba<\/em>. All the unofficial news had us both winning the prize: together we had begun and together we would achieve the highest literary award given in the country to a Latin American writer.<\/p>\n I want to take the opportunity to talk about this now.<\/p>\n And although it is an episode I prefer to forget, a matter that I always avoid, I believe that now, with the coming publication of Havana Babylonia or Prostitutes in Cuba<\/em>by Planeta Publishing, and before the questions arrive from readers (\u201cWhat is the story of that book\u201d? many ask, each in his own way), I must put on the table some of the cards that, for ethical reasons, I have been holding in silence.<\/p>\n In 1999, after five years of work (including journalistic investigations, interviews, research of official and unofficial information at different levels of the country, consultation of historical, health and political sources) I finished the book, bringing together interviews, testimonials, documents and essays about the world of prostitution in Cuba, basically about the strength this phenomenon acquired beginning in 1990 up to the present, specifically in step with the Cuban economy of basic survival (Cuba has never left a survival economy, at least not since 1959), by means of the so-called \u201cindustry without chimneys,\u201d tourism.<\/p>\n Throughout the book, and during seven chapters, four structural blocks alternate: a long testimony about one of the greatest Cuban prostitutes, very well-known and respected in the \u201890s; a second block of essays that develops the history of prostitution in Cuba up to the present, beginning with the first \u201cwomen of the life\u201d who arrived on the island in one of the ships of Christopher Columbus (a fact that is certainly curious and that has never been exploited by historians); a third block of testimonies from the different prostitutes who gave me interviews; and a fourth block reproducing a series of interviews of other people linked to the world of prostitution in Cuba: pimps, clandestine sellers (of rum, cigars, Cuban music and drugs), owners of private restaurants, owners of houses of prostitution and transvestite shows, lawyers, tourism workers, etc. The book consists of more than 300 pages.<\/p>\n Our Sade Who Art in Heaven or Prostitutes in Cuba<\/em> (that was the title of the book then) was presented in the genre of Testimony for the House of the Americas Literary Prize that same year, 1999.<\/p>\n At this point I must clarify something: I tell this story having proof that there was manipulation on the part of the jury at the moment my work was evaluated for the prize that, although it was small, was left unawarded, but for obvious reasons\u2013-the safety of the people who showed me the proof-\u2013I don\u2019t have the right to mention them at this time, since I don\u2019t want to put the responsible parties in harm\u2019s way without justice (at least literary justice) remembering their sad role. The moment will soon arrive.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at the facts: It is certain that someone knew that the work had been selected for the award; it is certain that a widespread rumor put in doubt the jury\u2019s performance, alluding to manipulations of a political type, among them that the book was not convenient because of the difficult times the country was going through; it is certain that the news of the award spread throughout Havana, and in the award ceremony, when the president of the jury read the act and declared the prize would not be awarded, there was a booing that everyone noticed, including the foreign press. It is certain that the following day and for several days, the foreign media (the Miami Herald<\/em>, Radio and Television Mart\u00ed, about ten digital newspapers, etc.) wrote that \u201ca Cuban had been deprived of the House of the Americas award for political reasons.\u201d It is certain that in just a couple of months, I received juicy offers from the Exterior for publication of the book, on the condition that the publishers could manipulate the text against Cuba, politically. I turned down all those offers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The real name<\/strong> Today, if that person who stole my book from the House of the Americas award office appeared, I would do him the honor of an acknowledgment for a simple reason: I was known as a writer in my country; although it seems immodest, I must say that I was one of the most known and mentioned writers by the literary critics, but that knowledge was widespread only among those of us who were in the milieu <\/em>and those who read, since in Cuba writers do not have the same success as musicians and athletes, who are public figures. Although it hurts us to say it, if you ask the average Cuban for a name of a well-known writer, you surely will get a shrugging of shoulders and, in the best case, you will hear: \u201cI read a book by someone whose name I don\u2019t remember.\u201d<\/p>\n Beginning with the clandestine dissemination of Havana Babylonia or Prostitutes in Cuba,<\/em> I became (and I quote the words of the writer Guillermo Vidal) \u201cone of the most widely-read writers, the one most sought after in the libraries of the island\u201d; at the presentations of my books, in whatever part of the country, hundreds and hundreds of people would attend and fight to get one of the few copies for sale; and the worst, or perhaps the most shameful, is that the censoring of this book, its condition of being a \u201cbanned book,\u201d and the spread by word of mouth of the measures taken against people who have read it, converted me into a myth.<\/p>\n I quote some of the most beautiful messages received:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MANUEL V\u00c1ZQUEZ MONTALB\u00c1N, SPANISH WRITER:<\/strong> <\/p>\n JES\u00daS D\u00cdAZ, CUBAN WRITER<\/strong> <\/p>\n P\u00cdO SERRANO, DIRECTOR, VERBUM PUBLISHING, SPAIN<\/strong> <\/p>\n ANDR\u00c9S JORGE, CUBAN WRITER, M\u00c9XICO<\/strong> <\/p>\n CARLOS CABRERA, CUBAN JOURNALIST, SPAIN<\/strong> <\/p>\n PAQUITO D\u2019RIVERA, WRITER AND CUBAN MUSICIAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES<\/strong> <\/p>\n SIFREDO ARIEL, CUBAN WRITER<\/strong> <\/p>\n GUILLERMO VIDAL, CUBAN WRITER<\/strong> <\/p>\n ANTONIO JOS\u00c9 PONTE, CUBAN WRITER<\/strong> <\/p>\n JORGE C. OLIVA, CUBAN WRITER<\/strong> Opinions: <\/p>\n DAGOBERTO VALD\u00c9S, ESSAYIST AND DIRECTOR OF MAGAZINE, VITRAL<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n I am filled with pride reading what so many people whom I love and respect have said about my book, while I pray to God for the humility necessary to not be conceited. Also, trying to be faithful to that humility, I confess that I owe the actual title of the book to one of those secret readers. I will tell the story:<\/p>\n In 2001, while I attended a presentation in the Province of Las Tunas of one of my books published by a Cuban publisher, Blue Girl Under the Rain,<\/em> a man of about 50 years stood up in public and asked if I would read \u201csomething from Havana Babylonia<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n I thought: \u201cShit, he has me confused with another writer,\u201d and I don\u2019t remember the exact words I said, but I let him know.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you are Amir Valle,\u201d the man insisted. I said yes.<\/p>\n \u201cYou yourself are the author of that book,\u201d he answered, \u201cIt\u2019s the book about the prostitutes,\u201d and he went on to tell me the fragment that had most impressed him.<\/p>\n The title he mentioned seemed so perfect that when I returned to Havana, I decided to change the name of the book. From then on, and thanks to that anonymous reader, the book is called Havana Babylonia or Prostitutes in Cuba<\/em>. And what I have just told is its story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00d3 Una manera accidental de acceder a la fama Art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol e ingl\u00e9s (a continuaci\u00f3n del original en espa\u00f1ol), gracias a la traducci\u00f3n de la escritora y periodista Regina M. Anavy. No puedo olvidar mis primeros a\u00f1os en un taller literario. Se trataba de uno de esos talleres literarios, por suerte, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publicados-anteriormente-en-amirvalle-com"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nUna manera accidental de acceder a la fama <\/strong><\/p>\nArt\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol e ingl\u00e9s (a continuaci\u00f3n del original en espa\u00f1ol), gracias a la traducci\u00f3n de la escritora y periodista Regina M. Anavy.<\/h5>\n
\nHe dicho antes que el libro se llam\u00f3 inicialmente Sade nuestro que est\u00e1s en los cielos \u00f3 Prostitutas en Cuba<\/em>. Y he de agregar que alguien hurt\u00f3 de las oficinas del Premio Casa de las Am\u00e9ricas una de las tres copias que present\u00e9 (los organizadores s\u00f3lo me devolvieron una cuando fui a recogerlas y me dijeron que, inconcebiblemente, las otras dos hab\u00edan desaparecido), que alguien fotocopi\u00f3 ese libro y lo coloc\u00f3 en Internet, incluso con la p\u00e1gina final donde aparec\u00edan mis datos personales, tel\u00e9fonos y correos. Eso me puso triste y me hizo feliz, al mismo tiempo. Triste, porque se comet\u00eda un acto de pirater\u00eda sin precedentes en la historia del pa\u00eds, ya que todo ello fue hecho sin mi consentimiento y me oblig\u00f3 a establecer una querella internacional por acto de pirater\u00eda y un proceso de b\u00fasqueda del pirata. Feliz, porque el libro comenz\u00f3 a circular, gan\u00f3 lectores, y en cuesti\u00f3n de unos pocos a\u00f1os he recibido miles de mensajes desde todas partes del mundo en mi correo, tuve que comprar una contestadora y cada mes el cartero trae a mi casa de diez a veinte cartas. Mientras las autoridades culturales cubanas me permitieron tener mi correo electr\u00f3nico por Cubarte (red del ministerio de Cultura),y hasta que me lo retiraron en un acto que considero puro fascismo cultural, recib\u00ed diariamente durante varios a\u00f1os entre dos y cinco mensajes que decid\u00ed conservar en un archivo especial, y al cual acud\u00ed (y acudo) de cuando en cuando, especialmente cuando me han llegado algunas noticias que considero lamentables (personas despedidas de sus centros de trabajo por leer un libro considerado clandestino, trabajadores amonestados, personas tachadas de ap\u00e1tridas por defender la tesis que defiendo en el libro, por mencionar algunas).<\/p>\n
\nESCRITOR ESPA\u00d1OL<\/strong>
\nNuevamente me conmueven tus historias. Pero en Habana Babilonia<\/em> el verbo se engrandece en tus manos. Pocos estudios he le\u00eddo sobre una costra moral como la prostituci\u00f3n en este caso, con tal pericia narrativa. Es un libro escrito desde el coraz\u00f3n, porque se nota que lo escribiste lacer\u00e1ndote. Por ello lacera la sensibilidad de cualquiera, a\u00fan cuando se trate de una de esas almas vac\u00edas que tanto abundan en nuestro planeta ya nada azul. Enhorabuena por este fascinante estudio. L\u00e1stima por tu pa\u00eds que ya acuna un mal del que jam\u00e1s nadie ha logrado salvarse.<\/p>\n
\nESCRITOR CUBANO. DIRECTOR REVISTA ENCUENTRO DE LA CULTURA CUBANA<\/strong>
\nTristeza e impotencia son las \u00fanicas palabras que me quedaron cuando termin\u00e9 de leer tu libro. Tristeza por las culpas que nos tocan en no haber sabido detener tan asqueroso mal; e impotencia por saber que esa realidad se multiplica y complejiza cada d\u00eda. Excelente pieza del periodismo y el testimonio es tu libro, llamado a convertirse en un cl\u00e1sico cubano en esos g\u00e9neros. Demuestra lo que ya sab\u00edamos: tu garra como periodista y tu habilidad como narrador. Espero que quienes lo lean descubran que existe esa otra Cuba que propones, y que es una de las Cubas que debemos curar, como se cura una gangrena: arranc\u00e1ndola de ra\u00edz.<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTOR EDITORIAL VERBUM, ESPA\u00d1A. <\/strong>
\nEs un libro magn\u00edfico, desgarrador, bien escrito, de una prosa segura y fuerte, que nos recuerda cosas que no debieran suceder en nuestro pa\u00eds.<\/p>\n
\nESCRITOR CUBANO. M\u00c9XICO (AUTOR DE ALFAGUARA) <\/strong>
\nGenial y conmovedor, aplastante, reflexivo. Una pieza prodigiosa m\u00e1s que anotas en tu ya respetado quehacer como escritor. Gracias por haberme lanzado de cabeza a la reflexi\u00f3n sobre nuestra realidad con estas historias de seres aplastados por la Historia. Es un libro que dar\u00e1 mucho que hablar, porque es de los grandes libros que mucha falta nos hacen.<\/p>\n
\nPERIODISTA CUBANO, ESPA\u00d1A. <\/strong>
\nAcabo de leer tu magn\u00edfico libro sobre la prostituci\u00f3n en Cuba, que se me antoja el mejor inventario de v\u00edctimas de la sociedad cubana actual. (…) tu investigaci\u00f3n rigurosa me ha dejado dos noches sin dormir (…) me ha conmovido la intraviolencia que recoge cada l\u00ednea de tu excelente trabajo de campo, pues hasta el lenguaje de esa colecci\u00f3n de perdedores que retratas es una violencia terrible para asimilar en las horas en que uno devora las cuartillas.<\/p>\n
\nESCRITOR Y M\u00daSICO CUBANO. NEW YORK, ESTADOS UNIDOS. <\/strong>
\n\u2026 no he podido dormirme hasta ahora que termin\u00e9 de leerlo de un tir\u00f3n.
\nAl igual que Chaplin, Cantinflas y la muerte de Celia Cruz, me hiciste re\u00edr y llorar a la vez. Es la m\u00e1s desgarradora y completa historia sobre uno de los grandes traumas que hoy hacen m\u00e1s convulsionante la realidad de nuestra querida isla.<\/p>\n
\nESCRITOR CUBANO <\/strong>
\nUn amigo me acaba de enviar (regalar) Habana Babilonia <\/em>en versi\u00f3n email. Lo leo maravillado y agradecido. Gracias y felicidades.<\/p>\n
\nESCRITOR CUBANO <\/strong>
\nDesde la publicaci\u00f3n de Biograf\u00eda de un cimarr\u00f3n<\/em>, de Miguel Barnet, all\u00e1 por los a\u00f1os sesenta, no se hab\u00eda escrito en Cuba, dentro del g\u00e9nero, un libro de tanto impacto social (\u2026) lo que, adem\u00e1s de su calidad, lo convierte, efectivamente, en un cl\u00e1sico de nuestras letras.<\/p>\n
\nESCRITOR CUBANO <\/strong>
\nTe felicito por ese cl\u00e1sico que has escrito.<\/p>\n
\nESCRITOR CUBANO <\/strong>
\nAyer me reun\u00cd con los otros lectores clandestinos de tu obra en Fontanar. Los cinco son personas mayores de 60 a\u00f1os. Todos profesionales, tres se encuentran a\u00fan activos y dos ya est\u00e1n retirados. Sus profesiones son: Un soci\u00f3logo profesor de la UH (Universidad de La Habana ), un abogado, dos ingenieros profesores de la CUJAE (Centro Universitario Jos\u00e9 Antonio Echevarr\u00eda) y un deportista y luchador clandestino del Directorio 13 de marzo, ya octogenario (El Bebo)
\nOpiniones:
\nEl abogado dice que te quedaste corto, que hay m\u00e1s podredumbre escondida en ese submundo. El soci\u00f3logo estima que tu imaginaci\u00f3n aport\u00f3 algo, si no bastante y que algunos personajes los exageraste hasta la caricatura. Los dos ingenieros se sintieron impresionados ya que el bajo mundo que nos descubres es preocupante, por lo que recriminaron al soci\u00f3logo. El abogado y el soci\u00f3logo, a su vez, entablaron recia pol\u00e9mica.
\nTodos somos de la opini\u00f3n que eres muy timbaludo y que no pocos problemas te habr\u00e1s buscado al escribir sobre el tema.<\/p>\n
\nENSAYISTA Y DIRECTOR REVISTA VITRAL <\/strong>
\nSe trata de un libro imprescindible en la historia del testimonio cubano; un referente obligado en nuestros estudios sociol\u00f3gicos, un libro esencial, cl\u00e1sico ya.<\/p>\nHavana<\/em><\/strong> Babylonia or Prostitutes in Cuba<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Or<\/strong><\/h3>\n
An Accidental Way of Attaining Fame<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nI have said earlier that the book was initially called Our Sade Who Art in Heaven or Prostitutes of Cuba.<\/em>And I must add that someone stole one of the three copies that I presented to the House of the Americas award office (the organizers returned only one to me when I went to retrieve them and told me that, inconceivably, the other two had disappeared), that someone photocopied the book and posted it on the Internet, even the last page with my personal information, including my telephone number and address. That made me sad and happy at the same time. Sad, because someone committed an act of piracy without precedent in the history of the country, which was done without my consent and which obliged me to bring an international lawsuit for an act of piracy and legal proceedings to find the pirate. Happy, because the book began to circulate, attracted readers, and in a few years I had received thousands of messages from all over the world in my mail. I had to buy an answering machine, and every month the mailman brought to my house anywhere from ten to twenty letters. While the Cuban cultural authorities permitted me to keep my email through Cubarte (the network of the Ministry of Culture), and until they took it away from me in an act that I consider pure cultural fascism, I received daily, for several years, between two and five messages that I decided to save in a special archive, and to which I turned (and turn) from time to time, especially when some news reaches me that I consider lamentable (people dismissed from their jobs for reading a book considered clandestine, workers reprimanded, people labeled as unpatriotic for defending the thesis that I defend in the book, to mention just a few).<\/p>\n
\nAgain your stories move me; in Havana Babylonia<\/em> the verb is aggrandized in your hands. I have read few studies about a moral scab\u2013\u2013prostitution in this case\u2013\u2013that have such a narrative skill. It is a book written from the heart, because you note that it was deeply distressing to write. For that reason it is distressing to anyone, even when it is a question of some of those empty souls who are so abundant on our no-longer-blue planet. Congratulations for this fascinating study. It is a pity for your country that it now cradles an evil from which no one has ever managed to escape.<\/p>\n
\nDIRECTOR, JOURNAL<\/em> OF ENCOUNTER WITH CUBAN CULTURE<\/em><\/strong>
\nSadness and impotence are the only words I had left when I finished reading your book. Sadness for the blame we have for not having stopped such a disgusting evil; and impotence for knowing that this reality is growing and becoming more complex every day. Your book is an excellent piece of journalism and testimony, which will certainly become a Cuban classic in this genre. You show us what we already know: your grasp as a journalist and your skill as a narrator. I hope that those who read it will discover the existence of this other Cuba that you set forth, and realize that it is one of the Cubas we should cure like you cure gangrene: by tearing it out at its roots.<\/p>\n
\nIt is a magnificent book, heart-rending, well written, with a sure and strong prose, which reminds us of things that should not be happening in our country.<\/p>\n
\nBrilliant and moving, stunning, thoughtful. One more prodigious piece added to your already-respected work as a writer. Thank you for having made me think about our reality with these stories of beings who have been crushed by History. It is a book that presents much to talk about, because it is one of the great books that we have been lacking.<\/p>\n
\nI just finished reading your magnificent work about prostitution in Cuba, which seems to me the best inventory of the victims of the present Cuban reality. (\u2026) Your rigorous investigation has now given me two sleepless nights (\u2026) It moved me with the intra-violence that each line of your excellent field work collects, since even the language of that collection of losers you describe is a terrible violence to assimilate in the hours that it takes to devour the pages.<\/p>\n
\nI could not go to sleep last night until I finished reading the whole book. The same as Chaplin, Cantinflas and the death of Celia Cruz, it made me laugh and cry at the same time. It is the most heart-rending and complete history of one of the great traumas that today makes the reality of our dear island more convulsive.<\/p>\n
\nA friend just sent me (as a gift) Havana Babylonia<\/em> in an email version. I read it with amazement, gratefully. Thanks and congratulations.<\/p>\n
\nSince the publication of the Biograf\u00eda de un Cimarr\u00f3n<\/em>, by Miguel Barnett, in the \u201870s, there has not been written in Cuba, within this genre, a book of such social impact (\u2026), which, besides its quality, converts it, effectively, into a classic of our literature.<\/p>\n
\nI congratulate you for this classic that you have written.<\/p>\n
\nYesterday I got together with other clandestine readers of your work in Fontanar. Five of us are over 60. All are professionals, three are still active and two are already retired. Their professions are: a sociology professor at UH (the University of Havana), a lawyer, two engineering professors at the CUJAE (University Center Jos\u00e9 Antonio Echevarr\u00eda), an athlete and a \u201cclandestine struggler\u201d of the March 13 Board of Directors, already in his \u201880s (The Baby).<\/p>\n
\nThe lawyer says that you cut it short, that there is much more rot hidden in that underworld. The sociologist thinks your imagination contributed something, quite a lot, and that you exaggerated some people almost into making them caricatures. The two engineers were impressed with how troubling the underworld that you describe is, and they recriminated against the sociologist. The lawyer and the sociologist, in turn, started arguing.
\nWe are all of the opinion that you are very gutsy and that you must have invited not just a few problems writing about this subject.<\/p>\n
\nThis is an indispensable book in the history of Cuban testimony; a required reference in our sociology studies, an essential book, already a classic.<\/p>\n