Arrufat, Antón (1935–)

Antón Arrufat (b. 14 August 1935), Cuban playwright and poet. Born in Santiago in Oriente Province, Arrufat studied in his native city as well as at the University of Havana. He has traveled to Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, and England and been very active in promoting literary activity in Cuba. He was editor in chief of the influential Casa de las Américas from 1960 to 1965 and has contributed to Lunes de Revolución, Ciclón, Cuba en UNESCO, La Gaceta de Cuba, and others. His work has attained such national acclaim as the honorable mentions he received for his play El vivo al pollo in the Casa de las Américas competition in 1961 and for his collection of poetry Repaso final in the 1963 competition. In 1968 he won the coveted prize given by the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC) for his play Los siete contra Tebas, which established him as one of Cuba's leading playwrights and at the same time brought him into temporary disfavor with the Castro regime. After a decade or so of being relegated to the periphery, he was rehabilitated and has become active again. Arrufat remained in Cuba, where he began publishing and participating in cultural activities once again. In 2000 he won the National Literature Prize and the Alejo Carpentier Prize for his novel La noche del aguafiestas.

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barquet, Jesús J. Teatro y Revolución Cubana: Subversión y utopía en Los siete contra Tebas de Antón Arrufat/Theater and the Cuban Revolution: Subversion and utopia in Seven against Thebes by Antón Arrufat. Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, 2002.

Kirk, John M., and Leonardo Padura. Culture and the Cuban Revolution: Conversations in Havana. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2001.

                                      Roberto Valero