The Cuban writer Leonardo Padura once again looked at the reality of the island from the international space offered by the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), where he presented his most recent novel, die in the sandand received an honorary doctorate by the University of Guadalajara.
In a conversation with the EFE agency, Padura described the “historical fatigue” that, in his opinion, Cuban society is going through, an exhaustion that he associates with the constant use of the term “historical” in the institutional life of the country.
“Everything is historical and this causes enormous fatigue in people,” said the author, who believes that this accumulation has led to a more pragmatic Cuba and, at the same time, a “loss of very important moral values.”
Padura—Princess of Asturias Award for Literature 2015—insisted that, although the political system has remained unchanged for six decades, Cuban society has been transformed, forced by the complexity of daily life and a scenario of material and emotional scarcity. “Cuba is a country in which everything is scarce, including hope,” he said.
Leonardo Padura: “I have never wanted to be a tourist writer”
The writer, one of the great chroniclers of contemporary Cuba, recalled that between 2021 and 2024 around 1.2 million people left the country, close to 10% of the population, an indicator that, he said, reflects the dimension of social change better than any discourse.
At 70 years old, Padura reiterated his decision to continue living in Havana, despite what he defines as “unrequited fidelity.”
“The codes have changed, behaviors have changed, there has been a loss of very important moral values. The phenomenon of decency, which was a social value, has been lost,” he lamented. The writer calls this uprooting “alienness”, his own concept.
The 39th edition of the FIL, considered the main publishing fair in the world in Spanish, ends this Sunday with the participation of more than 800 authors from 34 countries. This year Barcelona is the guest city and features figures such as Amin Maalouf, Javier Cercas, Fernanda Trías, Cristina Rivera Garza and Joan Manuel Serrat.
EFE/OnCuba
