Jorge Olivera Castillo (b. Havana, Cuba, 1961) is a Cuban poet and dissident.
Jorge Olivera Castillo | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1961 (age 62–63) Havanna, Cuba |
| Occupation | Activist, poet, writer |
| Language | Spanish |
| Genre | poetry |
| Years active | 1994-present |
He worked as a journalist for the Cuban state-run television station ICRT for 10 years.[1] He was briefly detained in 1992 for trying to leave the country on a raft;[1] in 1993, he left his position at ICRT and began writing reports for Radio Martí, a U.S.-funded, Miami-based station critical of the Cuban government.[2][3] With two other journalists, he founded an independent news agency, Havana Press, in 1995, and later became the director.[1]
Olivera Castillo was arrested in 2003 as part of the Black Spring crackdown and sentenced to eighteen years in prison for writing articles "against national independence and Cuba's economy".[4] In prison, he spent nine months in solitary confinement, and suffered from a range of health problems.[3][1] He began writing poetry and fiction while in prison as a coping mechanism.[3] His wife, Nancy Alfaya, became a member of the Ladies in White, agitating for his release.[5][3] After international pressure,[6] he was released for health reasons after serving only 18 months of his sentence, but remained under close supervision.[3][4] He is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard University.[7]
Works
editPoetry
edit- Confesiones antes del crepúsculo. Miami: Ed. Proyecto de Bibliotecas Independientes, 2005.
- En cuerpo y alma. Ed. Olgy and Olega Krylovových. Prague: PEN Czech Republic, 2008. (Spanish and Czech)
- —, 2010. (Spanish and French)
- Sobrevivir en la boca del lobo. Madrid: Editorial Hispano Cubana, 2012. ISBN 9788493742379.
- Cenizas alumbradas. Warsaw: Lech Walesa Foundation, 2010. (Spanish and Polish)
- Tatuajes en la memoria. Prague, 2013.
- Quemar las naves. [Miami]: Neo Club Ediciones, 2015. ISBN 9781519200570.
Short stories
edit- Huésped del infierno. Valencia: Editorial Aduana Vieja, 2007. ISBN 978-84-935219-8-1.
- Antes que amanezca : y otros relatos. Buenos Aires: Fundación Cadal, 2010. ISBN 9789872344627.
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Journalist Jorge Olivera Castillo released on medical grounds". IFEX. 9 December 2004. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Jorge Olivera Castillo (1961)". www.memoryofnations.eu. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
- ^ a b c d e Mineo, Liz (6 December 2016). "Out of 'the wolf's mouth'". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ a b Olivera Castillo, Jorge. "From Dream to Reality". English PEN. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
- ^ "Nancy". Mujeres Coraje (in Spanish). 3 March 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ Congressional Record Proceedings and Debates of the 108th Congress Second Session. Government Printing Office. 1954. p. 8730. ISBN 978-0-16-082001-4.
- ^ "Jorge Olivera Castillo". Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
External links
edit- Jorge Olivera Castillo at PayoLibre.com (in Spanish)
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