Padurisima (1) - Yo tambien amo a los perros (The first in a series of posts about Cuban writer Leonardo Padura)

Yo tambien amo a los perros! - El Yuma y Molly

Readers of El Yuma will remember that in late-March of this year, we were honored to host the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura here in New York.

While he was in town, I did my best so that Padura could visit as many academic, cultural, and media institutions as possible, taking advantage of this golden opportunity to allow him to share his sharp, critical, and unique perspective on Cuban culture and society with as broad a public as possible.

Thus, in the following series of posts, I will share with readers a number of videos and other documents related to Padura and his "andares nuyorquinos" earlier this year.

Included in this list is his visit to Baruch College, his participation in the Bildner Center's Cuba Symposium, New York's Instituto Cervantes (and Chicago), and a pair of visits to two unique Spanish-language New York TV stations: NY1 Noticias (see here, here, and here) and CUNY TV's award wining program Nueva York!

Readers should stay tuned for the English translation of Padura's latest novel, "El hombre que amaba a los perros," which he told me was underway and is due out in 2012.

For now, I direct readers to a few recent news items of interest involving Padura:

* October 5, 2011: Padura chats with AFP about Cuban culture while in Europe (see AFP report here and Marti Noticias here).

* September 20, 2011: Padura's novel "El hombre que amaba a los perros," on Trotsky's assassination wins Cuban literary prize: "Premian novela de Padura que critica al estalinismo,"Martinoticias.com.

* August 3, 2011: Padura compares Fidel's Cuba to Raul's Cuba in a Spanish-language interview with Juan Carlos Salazar, "No es lo mismo la Cuba de Raúl que la de Fidel."  After reading this interview, a Cuban friend of mine who recently returned from a trip home, shared this comment with me: 

"Evidentemente el no vive en la misma Cuba o en la misma Havana que yo vi hace unas semanas. Por primera vez he visto la alegria del cubano esfumada, ni siquiera musica se escucha ya en las calles. Sus libros bordean mejor la realidad que estas opiniones".

* July 11 & March 28, 2011: Fellow Cuban writer (and fellow Havana resident) Eduardo del Llano reviews Padura's novel on his blog, as does the exiled Cuban writer Antonio Jose Ponte at Diario de Cuba. Mind you, these two reviews come to VERY conclusions about the novel.

Pepe y yo