Carlos Franqui

Carlos Franqui ( born December 4, 1921 in Clavellinas ( at Cifuentes ), Las Villas Province, † April 16, 2010 in San Juan, Puerto Rico ) was a Cuban poet, writer, journalist and art critic, a journalist of the revolutionary movement July 26 made ​​an important role in the seizure of power by Fidel Castro, is from 1968 but openly turned against his policies.

Life

To 1958

Carlos Franqui was born in 1921 as the son of Cuban peasants. Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to study in Havana, where he worked as an editor for the newspaper Hoy ( "Today ") of the Cuban Communist Party (PSP ) until 1946 he left the party in the dispute. In 1947, he took along with Fidel Castro in an armed expedition in part, directed against Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, but failed early. In the early 1950s he worked for the political and cultural weekly newspaper The Posters. After the military coup of Fulgencio Batista in March 1952, he was actively involved in the resistance movement. After arrest and suffered torture, he went into exile in Mexico and Florida, from where he organized arms and money supplies to the underground fighters in his home. In 1958 he fought as a member of the 26th of July Movement at the side of Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra and served as consultant and organizer of public relations. So Franqui led the Radio Rebelde and founded the guerrilla newspaper Revolución, as an organ of the movement.

From 1959

Shortly after the revolution, he did not always agree with the official line, watching in particular the increasing concentration of political power in the hands of Fidel Castro and the involvement of officials of the Communist Party with concern. After the flight of Batista and the subsequent seizure of power by the Revolutionary Revolución appeared as the official newspaper. A prominent, defended by Franqui space for cultural debates in the run by the newspaper he was the weekly literary supplement Lunes de Revolución. It was the responsibility of the writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, however, was set in 1961. 1963 Franqui was under increasing pressure to his post two years later Revolución was merged with the newspaper Hoy to Granma, the new party organ of the Communist Party of Cuba. Franqui worked since 1963 as an unofficial cultural ambassador of the Cuban revolution in Europe, where he met intellectuals and artists like Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder and Jean -Paul Sartre. He promoted the exchange between Cuba and the contemporary art of Europe and was therefore contrary to the propagated by the Soviet Union as a counter-model socialist realism.

1968

As Castro 1968 invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia was good, Franqui had a falling out with the Cuban regime and went into exile in Italy. Since that time his work has increased significantly as a writer and poet. In the following years he was a major activist against the regime under Castro: Especially his active role in the revolution helped him to increased credibility. Since the early 1990s he lived semi- retired in Puerto Rico in exile and was until his death the Carta de Cuba out, a quarterly magazine with outstanding journalistic contributions from Cuba.

Works (selection)

  • Cuba: Le livre des Douze. ( Spanish Edition: El libro de los doce ), Gallimard, Paris, 1965.
  • Relatos: revolución cubana. Sandino, Montevideo 1970.
  • Diario de la revolución cubana. (English edition: Diary of the Cuban Revolution), R. Torres, Barcelona 1976.
  • Retrato de familia con Fidel. (English edition: Family Portrait with Fidel A memoir. ) Seix Barral, Barcelona 1981.
  • Vida y Aventuras de un hombre llamado Desastres Castro. Planeta, Barcelona, 1988, ISBN 978-8432044267.
  • Mirar las palabras. Cocodrilo Verde, Madrid 2000.
  • Camilo Cienfuegos. Seix Barral, Barcelona 2001, ISBN 978-8432208614.
  • Cuba, La Revolución. Mito o Realidad; memorias de un fantasma socialista. Peninsular Ediciones, Barcelona 2006, ISBN 84-8307-725-6.
Pundit Granma (newspaper) Integrated Authority File
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