04/06/2026
Please join us for “Reinaldo Arenas, the Impure: A Conversation with René Cifuentes” presented by René Cifuentes on Thursday, April 16 at 4pm in the Library at 84 Prospect St.
René Cifuentes was born in Cuba in 1953 and arrived in the United States in 1980. In 1983, together with Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas and other exiled writers, he founded the magazine Mariel (1983–1985) in New York, which served as an aesthetic and political platform for artists and writers who had suffered persecution on the island. As a member himself of the “Mariel Generation”, Cifuentes amassed a collection of memorabilia from years of friendship with Reinaldo Arenas, a personal archive that includes photographs, handwritten notes, personal objects and telephone message recordings, among others. His articles and works of fiction appeared in Mariel as well as several others across the United States and Latin America. For eighteen years, he worked at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Drawing from a catauro (trove) of friendship experiences in New York—from their arrival in the city to the day of Arenas death by suicide—Cifuentes’ talk proposes an affective and artifact-based approach to the figure and complex personality of the man behind Before Night Falls. Offering a canonization based more on the body than on the body of work, this talk/conversation traces Reinaldo Arenas’ life’s journey—from his departure from Cuba, through the shifting realities of 1980s gay New York amid the AIDS crisis, to the founding of Mariel, more than a literary magazine, an essential chapter in the history of Cuban exile fight against political repression and homophobia institutionalized by the state.
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RenĂ© Cifuentes naciĂł en Cuba en 1953 y llegĂł a Estados Unidos en 1980. En 1983, junto a Reinaldo Arenas y otros escritores exiliados fundĂł la revista Mariel (1983-1985) en Nueva York, que sirviĂł de plataforma estĂ©tica y polĂtica a artistas y escritores que habĂan sufrido persecuciĂłn en la isla. Miembro de la llamada GeneraciĂłn del Mariel, atesora una colecciĂłn memorabĂlica resultante de los años de amistad con Reinaldo Arenas: fotografĂas, dedicatorias manuscritas de sus libros, objetos personales, registros de llamadas telefĂłnicos y mensajes de voz. Sus artĂculos y ficciones aparecieron en Mariel y otras revistas de Estados Unidos y AmĂ©rica Latina. Durante dieciocho años trabajĂł en el Museo de Arte Moderno (MoMA).
Partiendo de un catauro de experiencias compartidas en el Nueva York del exilio––desde la llegada a esa ciudad hasta el dĂa de la muerte por suicidio de Arenas–, Cifuentes ofrece un acercamiento afectivo y memorabĂlico a la figura y compleja personalidad del hombre detrás de Antes que anochezca. Con una propuesta de canonizaciĂłn más por el cuerpo que por la obra, esta charla/conversatorio sigue los trazos de Reinaldo Arenas a lo largo de un periplo que va desde su salida de Cuba, las peripecias en el Nueva York gay y del sida de los 80, y la fundaciĂłn de Mariel––más que una revista literaria, un capĂtulo esencial en la historia de la lucha del exilio cubano contra la homofobia y la represiĂłn polĂtica institucionalizadas por el Estado.
THIS EVENT WILL BE IN SPANISH
