Heberto Padilla

Demasiado humano para darle la espalda asu tiempo y demasiado cubano para no asumirla tragedia de nuestra isla, Padilla padeci la Historia hasta el desgarro y mostr que la poes a es b sicamente un ejercicio de libertad y que, por ello, en tiempos dif ciles puede ser peligrosa. Manuel D az Mart nez El discurso de Padilla constituye una de las piezas fundamentales de nuestra literatura revolucionaria.Duanel D az Infante 'La mala memoria' es otro de esos libros atestados de micr fonos y de suspicacias que los estados policiales terminan generando.Gerardo Fern ndez Fe El llamado 'caso Padilla' puso en crisis la fidelidad y la ingenuidad de muchos escritores y artistas progresistas extranjeros que creyeron debuena fe en el proceso cubano. Y, tambi n es cierto, que a sus compatriotas que compart an la geograf a de la isla y el mosquitero de la dictadura, les puso un mensaje de advertencia y unas l neas claras que marcaban las fronteras del miedo a la represi n. Ra l Rivero

A chilling account of the fate of intellectuals and artists in contemporary Cuba, Herberto Padilla's frankly autobioghraphical novel is the story of a writer who refuses to give over to the revolutionary state othe power of his art. In the process, Heroes Are Grazing In my Garden paints an astonishingly realistic portrait of an idealist movement gone sour, and the lives of the men and womern lost in the somber turn of the tide.

The autobiography of Cuba's finest poet, whose condemnation by the Castro regime became a cause celebre. "Intellectuals alienated from the Castro government who have told their stories tend to sound spiteful and illiberal, like Cabrera Infante; Padilla takes pains to do better. His style is clear, sometimes witty, often bitter, persevering but not burdensome, and evincing an occasional affinity with both Orwell and Hemingway." - Publishers Weekly

Legacies is the author's own selection from his work, and represents the many facets of Padilla's art: his lyrical love poems, his almost Audenesque meditations on other poets, his deceptively simple verses about history.This edition presents the English translations and original Spanish poems side by side on facing pages.