Carlos Franqui

Carlos Franqui (born 1921) is a Cuban writer, poet, journalist, art critic, and political activist.

Born in a cane field, he was able to enter a vocational school, where he joined the Communist Party of Cuba. He gave up the opportunity to enter the University of Havana to become a professional organizer for the party at the age of 20. After successfully organizing the party in several small towns, he broke with the organization and became an unaffiliated leftist.

He turned to journalism to make a living, where his voracious reading provided him with a much better education than he would have received in the university. After the Fulgencio Batista coup in 1952, he became involved with the "Movimiento 26 de Julio" which was directed by Fidel Castro. He was jailed and tortured by the police. On his release, he went into exile in Mexico and Florida, but was soon drafted by Castro into the Sierra Maestra to head Revolución, the guerrilla movement's clandestine newspaper and Radio Rebelde, their clandestine radio station.

Upon the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, he was placed in charge of Revolución, which became an official paper. He maintained a degree of independence from the official line, which eventually caused him to leave for Europe. There, he met artists and intellectuals, such as Pablo Picasso, Miró, Calder, Jean Paul Sartre. Having resigned from Revolución, he dedicated himself to art, organizing the famous "Salón de Mayo" exhibit in Havana (1967), where all leading artists in the world were represented.

Because of his dissident attitude, he continued to have problems with the Cuban government. Eventually, he was allowed to leave Cuba with his family and settled in Italy. In 1968, he officially broke with the Castro regime when he signed a letter condemning the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

After his definitive exile, his literary production markedly increased. He has written several major historical accounts of the Cuban Revolution ("El Libro de los Doce", "Diario de la Revolución Cubana"). Another facet of his production are a number of poetry and graphic arts collections (for which he has collaborated with Miró, Tapies, Calder and others), several books of poetry, as well as several narrative works on art (some edited in Italian under pen names).

He has continued to campaign against repression in Cuba and other countries. He is officially branded as a traitor by the Cuban government, which accuses him of CIA ties. However, many Cuban exiles shun him because of his active role in the Communist Party.

In the early 1990s he moved to Puerto Rico, where he lives in semi-retirement. In 1996, he founded Carta de Cuba, a quarterly journal featuring high-quality work produced in Cuba by independent journalists and writers. Franqui continues to edit the publication to this date.