MIAMI, United States. – The French nationalized Cuban journalist, critic and writer William Navarrete presented his book this Thursday in Miami Like the phoenix: 50 stories from Cuba in exile, which includes fifty interviews originally published in CubaNet.
During the presentation, which took place at the Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center, Navarrete was surrounded by several of his interviewees. He also told anecdotes about the pieces and read brief fragments.
“Every story has a story, not only that of the interviewee, but also that of how to reach the interviewee,” he said.
Likewise, the writer thanked the Rialta publishing house, CubaNet and to its former director, Hugo Landa, as well as to all those involved for making the publication of the volume possible.
“The publisher is Mexican. The author lives in Paris. The financial instrument is in Miami. The book was printed in London. The one who made the cover and the editor live in Havana. (…) This book is exile,” said the Cuban journalist and critic.
Like the phoenix: 50 stories from Cuba in exile It is now available to readers on various digital platforms. The volume, which was published in December 2024 under the Rialta Ediciones label with the support of CubaNet, It brings together interviews conducted between 2021 and 2024 and has been described as a collective testimony of the historical and cultural memory of the Cuban exile.
In its 798 pages, Like the phoenix: 50 stories from Cuba in exile gives voice to prominent figures of exile born before 1959, who share their experiences on the Island and its diaspora.
The writer and journalist Ibrahim Hernández Oramas, author of the book’s back cover note, has described the work as “a mosaic of vivid testimonies of a dispersed nation.”
The 50 interviews They include personalities from different fields such as Waldo Díaz-Balart, Anita Guerra and Humberto Calzada (painters); Cristóbal Díaz Ayala and Eloy Cepero (musicologists); Gloria Leal, Olga Connor and Luis Conte Agüero (journalists); Ángel de Fana, Sylvia Iriondo and Margarita Larrinaga (political activists); and HRH the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg María Teresa Mestre Batista, among others.
The book also explores the impact of the events of 1959 on the interviewees and their families, and how these figures managed to rebuild their lives in countries such as the United States, Spain, France, Mexico, Sweden and Argentina, among others. These pieces “evoke the lost country, the political prison, the forced labor camps and the great names and events of their lives on the Island and in exile,” details Hernández Oramas.
The interviewees also address the challenges of exile and the ways in which they managed to be reborn, “like the phoenix,” despite adverse circumstances.
William Navarrete, born in Cuba in 1968 and living in Paris for more than three decades, has published more than 30 books, covering genres such as essays, poetry and narrative. The author has been recognized for his literary and journalistic work; has won awards such as The Temps des Cerises (2024) and the Eugenio Florit of Poetry.
Navarrete studied Art History at the University of Havana and Spanish American Civilization at La Sorbonne-Paris IV. He has worked as a writer, journalist and translator and has organized a hundred presentations, colloquiums and cultural forums at the Maison de l’Amérique Latine in Paris. He has also directed anthologies and collections of literature.
Since 1999 he has collaborated with The New Herald and other means. He is a member of the Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL) of France and received the creation grant from the National Book Center (Paris).
