Virgilio Piñera

Who was Virgilio Piñera?

Virgilio Piñera Llera was a Cuban author, playwright, poet, short-story writer, and essayist.

Among his most famous poems are "La isla en peso", and "La gran puta". He was a member of the "Origenes" literary group, although he often differed with the conservative views of the group. In the late 1950s he co-founded the literary journal Ciclón. Following a long exile in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Piñera returned to Cuba in 1958, months before the Cuban Revolutionary won.

His work includes essays on literature and literary criticism, several collections of short stories compiled under the title of Cold Tales, a great number of dramatic works, and three novels: La carne de René, Presiones y Diamantes, and Las pequeñas maniobras. His work is seen today as a model by new generations of Cuban and Latin American writers. Some believe that his work influenced that of Reinaldo Arenas, who wrote in his memoir Before Night Falls of Piñera's time in Argentina and friendship there with Witold Gombrowicz.

The magazine Unión posthumously published autobiographical writing by Piñera in which he discussed how he concluded he was gay.