The great Cuban writer, Carlos Victoria died early Friday morning in Hialeah. A native of Camagüey, he was born in 1950 and won a national literary prize at age fifteen. Marked as a dissident by the castro regime, he was expelled from Havana University. Later he was placed under arrest and his manuscripts confiscated. In 1980, he left Cuba as part of the Mariel exodus and came to the United States.
Carlos Victoria’s published novels and collections of short stories have made him a recognized voice in Spanish letters. La travesía secreta appeared in French translation, and was named France’s “Best Foreign Book of the Month.”
His haunting novel, A Bridge in Darkness, is one of my very favorite books. I first read it two years ago, and it has stayed with me and become part of my internal dialog. I emailed Mr. Victoria about how effected I was by this suspenseful, intimate story of a solitary man coming to terms with the loneliness of exile, and was surprised to receive a very friendly, gracious reply.
He was a great writer, intense and honest; his narrative invades your soul and makes itself at home, providing a permanent illumination. . As the reviewer for Le Courier wrote, “Victoria is a writer endowed with the gift of fashioning a personal experience into a genuine work of literature.”
I am shocked and saddened by the passing of this great man. May God bless him, and keep him, and may he rest in peace.
More here, at Cuban encuentro.
…an island on the net without a bearded dictator
