It is difficult to determine the origin of homophobia in Cuba. Homophobic attitudes had been entrenched in Cuban political life for decades before the departure of the Spanish and were a central part of the morality of the Cuban Revolution. For Cuban homosexuals, defending their identity has been a challenge that has led to censorship, exile and invisibility, especially during the first three decades of the revolutionary government. Fear and stereotyping were essential in turning this group into a social problem in the eyes of the population. Using social constructionism as a methodology, the authorities dictated that homosexuality was a social problem and developed the idea that homosexuals were marginals with a pathology that could be ‘solved’/’treated’ (Sedgwick 1990: 61; Almendros and Jiménez-Leal 1984a: 176).

This study is divided into two parts. First, the narrative of homophobic ethos in Cuba is traced from the departure of the Spanish in 1898 up to the beginning of the Cuban Revolution using data present in political texts, films, documentaries and literature before and throughout Fidel Castro's regime. Second, I focus on the way in which homosexuals survived the repressive period after Castro came to power. The essence of the conflict between supporters of the revolution and dissidents in Cuba is embedded in alternative insights into the life and work of Reinaldo Arenas and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.

As Arenas was one of the fiercest representatives of Cuban dissidence in exile, his feelings reveal the difficulties of preserving identity and social cohesion in a marginal context (i.e. censorship in Cuba first and in exile later). Ultimately, Arenas managed to give a voice back to those individuals who were not allowed to talk during the first three decades of the revolutionary government.

A close reading of Arenas's private letters, interviews with him and the manuscripts of his novels, most of which are held in the Arenas Collection at the Firestone Library in Princeton, allows an alternative view of Arenas as a writer and activist to be constructed. The material offers evidence that Arenas was a much more complex character than might be expected, as a result of his determination, ambition, sadness, disappointment and ultimately nostalgia. This is evidenced by the fact that he devoted a considerable amount of his time in exile to reflecting compulsively on Cuba, its past, its present and its lack of a future.