80 Chapter 3
people think that they have to make demands on the state for their freedom”
(p.117).
Roberto Fernández Retamar is director of Casa de las Américas and the Cen-
ter for Martí studies, as well as a member of the National Assembly and the
Council of State. He was nominated the first secretary of UNEAC in 1961.
He won the National Prize for Literature in Cuba and an award from the
Latin American Studies Association in 2008. Retamar is as “official” an intel-
lectual as can be in Cuba. In the interview he talks about the need “to obtain
the greatest possible freedom that we can,” but emphasizes that it is contin-
gent, a “relative” idea. Retamar thinks that it is ‘immature” not to include
dissident writers such as Cabrera Infante in Dictionary of Cuban literature.
Retamar says that “I have been, am, and always will be opposed to such acts”
(meaning excluding writers), and “I also understand that it will soon be
impossible to stop publishing a writer because of nonliterary reasons” (my
emphasis).^20 At the same time, “there are also some writers whose opinions
can cause a great deal of irritation because of their fierce opposition and
their lies about Cuba. It will be more difficult to publish their work than that
of other writers. That is only natural” (p.126-7). He too admits that “errors”
were committed in the past, for instance in the government's “hostility”
toward homosexuals, though in his view this problem was not “invented by
the revolution.” Lunes de Revolución was “in the hands of a person [Carlos
Franqui] who, despite literary ability, was profoundly disturbed. He was also
a professional liar, as can be seen in his nonliterary texts.” (p.127). After
roundly attacking Padilla, he admits that the affair should have been “han-
dled with more tact” (p.128). This view, also found in Alfredo Guevara's
memoirs, is part of the official position on Padilla and the “affair".”
Another interesting source of insight is the famous exchange of heated
emails among Cuban intellectuals, in January and February 2007, in reaction
to the appearance on TV of the former head of the National Culture Coun-
cil from 1971 to 1976 and main implementer of the repressive policies
known as the Quinquenio Gris: Luis Pavón. These emails were eventually pub-
lished on a Cuban website entitled Consenso (not in mass media). In a long
- One recalls his role in the Cuban condemnation of Pablo Neruda and Carlos Fuentes for
their participation to the PEN Club meeting in New York in 1969. Carlos Fuentes, who calls
Retamar “Zhdanov Retamar,” insists that he included in the petition Alejo Carpentier and
José Lezama Lima without asking their permission. Neruda called him “El Sargento” and in
Fuentes' novel Cristobal Nonato, he is the inspiration for the character “El Sargento del
Tamal.” See Fuentes, 2003.