Editing Reinaldo Arenas (section)

== Writings ==
Despite his short life and the hardships that were imposed during his imprisonment, Arenas produced a significant body of work. In addition to significant poetic efforts ("El Central", "Leprosorio"), his ''[[Pentagonia]]'' is a set of five novels that comprise a "secret history" of post-revolutionary Cuba. It includes ''Singing from the Well'' (in Spanish also titled "Celestino before Dawn"),<ref name="New Yorker" /> ''[[Farewell to the Sea]]'' (whose literal translation is "The Sea Once More"),<ref name="dies" /> ''[[Palace of the White Skunks]]'', the [[Rabelais]]ian ''Color of Summer'', and ''The Assault''. In those novels, his style ranges from a stark realist narrative and high modernist experimental prose to absurd satiric humor. His second novel, ''Hallucinations'' ("El Mundo Alucinante"), rewrites the story of the colonial dissident priest [[Servando Teresa de Mier|Fray Servando Teresa de Mier]].

In interviews, his autobiography, and some of his fiction work, Arenas draws explicit connections between his own life experience and the identities and fates of his protagonists. As is evident and as critics such as Francisco Soto have pointed out, the "child narrator" in "Celestino," Fortunato in "The Palace...," Hector in "Farewell..," and the triply named "Gabriel/Reinaldo/Gloomy Skunk" character in "Color" appear to live progressive stages of a continuous life story that is also linked to Arenas's.<ref>{{cite book |last=Soto |first=Francisco |title=Reinaldo Arenas |publisher=Twayne Publishers  |location=London |date=1998 |isbn=0805745548}}</ref> 

In turn, Arenas consistently links his individual narrated life to the historical experience of a generation of Cubans. A constant theme in his novels and other writing is the condemnation of the Castro government, but Arenas also critiques the [[Catholic Church]] and American culture and politics. He also critiques a series of literary personalities in Havana and internationally, particularly those who he believed had betrayed him and suppressed his work ([[Severo Sarduy]] and [[Ángel Rama]] are notable examples). His "Thirty truculent Tongue-Twisters," which he claimed to have circulated in Havana and were reprinted in "The Color of Summer," mock everyone from personal friends, who he suggests may have spied on him, to figures such as Nicolás Guillén, Alejo Carpentier, Miguel Barnet, Sarduy, and of course Castro himself.

His autobiography ''[[Before Night Falls]]'' was on the ''[[New York Times]]'' list of the ten best books of the year in 1993.<ref name="New Yorker" /> In 2000, the work was [[Before Night Falls (film)|made into a film]], directed by [[Julian Schnabel]] in which Arenas was played by [[Javier Bardem]].<ref name="New Yorker" /> An opera based on the autobiography with libretto and music by the [[Cuban-American]] composer [[Jorge Martín (composer)|Jorge Martín]] premiered at the [[Fort Worth Opera]] on May 29, 2010, with baritone [[Wes Mason]] singing the role of Arenas.

The Reinaldo Arenas Papers are held at Princeton University Library. "The collection consists of personal and working papers of Reinaldo Arenas" and includes typescript and typescript drafts, essays, interviews, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and other documents.<ref>{{cite web |website=Princeton University Library |url=https://rbsc.princeton.edu/collections/reinaldo-arenas-papers |title=Reinaldo Arenas Papers |access-date=December 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512003215/https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/collections/reinaldo-arenas-papers |archive-date=May 12, 2023}}</ref>