{"id":232314,"date":"2020-12-27T10:15:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T15:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=232314"},"modified":"2020-12-27T10:15:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T15:15:19","slug":"leonardo-padura-no-society-should-limit-the-right-to-disagreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/leonardo-padura-no-society-should-limit-the-right-to-disagreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonardo Padura: \u201cNo society should limit the right to disagreement\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leonardo Padura, the most published, most read, most translated and most controversial Cuban writer today, is ending this fateful 2020 at full speed. International honors, great reviews from critics and the public, intense virtual days at book fairs, conferences and seminars have kept him busy. At this point in \u201cthe championship\u201d he exhibits a joyous fatigue, that of one who happily fulfills a destiny: writing fiction, novels, creating specular realities that delve into our intricate national being and that, whether they want to or not, reveals it.<\/span><\/p>\n

We went to his house in Mantilla for the Christmas hug. I share our talk with the readers of <\/span>OnCuba<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

How have you coped with 2020?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I think this has been a rare, complicated and revealing year for almost all of us. Many things have been uncovered in the face of a phenomenon such as an epidemic that kills, and that caused us very visceral fears, because it showed us how weak we are. A single ugly, fatty molecule put humanity in check, and in the process has brought out some of the best and worst attitudes in human beings, as is often the case in critical times.<\/span><\/p>\n

In my case, it canceled the many work trips abroad that I usually make, and the number of visits that I usually receive here in Cuba, but without reducing the intensity of work. On the contrary. So, in addition to writing, I have had a very intense schedule of presentations, conferences, interviews, always digitally, and I have attended more book fairs and literary meetings than ever. On the creative side, meanwhile, it was a good time for the final version of <\/span>Como polvo en el viento<\/span><\/i> (Like Dust in the Wind) and, amid all that promotional work for its release, write the first and the most difficult 50 pages of a new novel.<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of various vaccines for immunization against SARS-CoV-2 has begun to spread in several countries. Do you think the so-called \u201cnew normal\u201d is around one, two months away? How do you see the fight against this virus in Cuba?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I hope that the new vaccinated normal comes soon, because the fatigue syndrome is even overcoming those fears I was talking about before. It turns out that we are going to close the year with more daily cases of infections in almost the entire world, with confinements that will return, with more people that will die, with more businesses that will go bankrupt, with more disaster…. Cuba is not going to get rid of that panorama either, because it was necessary to open the borders and, through them, let in more infections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Economically, I don\u2019t know what the ratio of profits to losses will be, but that was what was decided, after months of work against the pandemic that achieved its control as far as it was controllable. I hope that some vaccine appears here, one of the <\/span>Soberanas<\/span><\/a>, the Chinese, the Russian, whatever, and I am one of those who is willing to be vaccinated. Even against rabies.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the reasons we know, <\/i><\/b>Como polvo en el viento<\/b>, your latest published novel, has not had the usual promotional tours. Has this affected the reception and sale of the work? What feedback have you received from the public and critics?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The novel came out in late August in Spain, and a few weeks later in Latin America. I had scheduled tours of Spain, then Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, and to close the year at the International Book Fair (FIL) in Guadalajara, Mexico. Although I could not be in person in any of those places, I was in virtually all of them, but also in Colombia, at the FIL in Lima and the \u201cHay Festival\u201d in Arequipa….<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know to what extent the fact of not being physically influenced sales levels, but the novel has been among the top ten books sold in Spain, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, that is, in the most important publishing centers of the language and in all those countries I have done different promotional activities. So the public\u2019s response has been very favorable, and also that of the critics, who have said very flattering things about the novel, with readings that are very attuned to what I proposed with it, since it has not only been read as a novel about the diaspora and distance, but also as a story of loyalty and roots. Anyway, it seems that the novel has worked well for many readers in many countries, even since it\u2019s a long story and with a complicated structure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Babelia, in Spain, has named <\/i><\/b>Como polvo en el viento<\/b> among the 50 most significant titles of all genres, published this year.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Look at that. I didn\u2019t know that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leonardo Padura: with Cuba and with my language in tow…<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n