Before Night Falls

Arenas’s mother (who he refers to in the book only as “my mother”) forms Arenas as much by her absence as by her presence. To the teenaged Fuentes, Arenas is a reminder of his father’s betrayal of his promise to marry her. She never recovers from this betrayal. For the rest of her life, she avoids another love out of spite of Arenas’s father and out of the fear of another betrayal.

In his mother Arenas sees both the danger and fatal attraction of such a reactive, cynical attitude, and fears that, like her, he will resign himself to unhappiness: “I had to leave my mother or become like her—that is, a poor, resigned creature full of frustrations with no urge for rebellion. Above all, I would have had to smother my own being’s innermost desires” (413). Arenas also thinks he needs to leave his mother to spare her the pain and disappointment he suspects his life would cause her. However, when she sees him in prison and cries, he realizes he has run in vain—he cannot save his mother from pain just as he could not save her from her suffering when he was a child.

Arenas’s grandmother (who remains unnamed) plays a crucial role in his childhood, showing the affection for him that his teenaged mother cannot. His grandmother is a powerful figure who knows how to navigate her environment: even in tragedy she knows exactly what to do. This composure is a mix of practical skill and mystical knowledge. She lives in a rich metaphysical world deeply connected to nature, a world to which she introduces Arenas. This seeds in Arenas his literary creativity: “regarding the magical, the mysterious, which is so essential for the development of creativity, my childhood was the most literary time of my life. And this I owe, in large measure, to that mythical figure my grandmother” (142). Arenas’s grandmother is the matriarch and keystone of the family, providing the stability that neither her husband nor her older children can.

The Camachos are a Cuban expatriate couple who live in Europe. After they meet Arenas in 1967 at the Salón de Mayo in Havana and learn of his persecution, they provide Arenas with a crucial link to the free world until his escape from Cuba in 1980. The Camachos employ ingenuous means to communicate weekly through the censors with Arenas, boosting his spirits throughout his years of persecution. They smuggle his manuscripts out of Cuba and, crucially, find a publisher in France. The publication of his novels abroad builds him an international reputation that both inflames his persecution but also protects him—the Cuban government fears the international backlash of killing him. For Arenas, the Camachos are not only a crucial link to the free world but loyal friends who do everything they can to help him while many of his friends in Cuba betray him.

Castro looms large in Arenas’s life even though Arenas only sees him in person once, at the speech he gives to the students at La Pantoja. Arenas’s life and literary work, including this book, are in large part a rebuke of Castro. In his suicide note, Arenas blames Castro alone for his lifelong suffering. Arenas’s vengeful attitude toward Castro stems in part from feeling betrayed by him: The poor, young, idealistic Arenas put his faith in Castro and his Revolution, believing in his mission to build a better Cuba. Castro is subsequently responsible for almost all of the persecution Arenas faces for his writing and sexuality.

Lázaro is Arenas’s close friend and lover who is a crucial connection to Arenas’s former life in Cuba after the two emigrate to the US. Arenas meets Lázaro at the Monserrate Hotel, where Lázaro lives with his parents. Similar to Arenas with his own family, Lázaro feels like an outsider at home and yearns to escape, find peace, and write. The similarity between the two is undoubtably part of the attraction: in the teenaged Lázaro, Arenas sees himself. Lázaro is the person who bridges Arenas’s former life in Cuba and his life in the US. In Lázaro Arenas has not only a friend and lover but a testament of his suffering that stands against American ignorance of the Cuban plight.

State Security is a repressive intelligence arm of Castro’s government responsible for monitoring and crushing dissent through underhanded tactics such as surveillance, torture, blackmail, and threats. State Security operates a widespread intelligence network supported in large part by turning regular Cubans into informants, whether through blackmail, political favor, or something else. This system of informants breeds widespread distrust in the Cuban population: anyone could be or become an informant, therefore no one can be trusted.

Under State Security, Arenas suffers years of persecution for his writing and homosexuality—treatment that amounts to a type of psychological warfare that breeds distrust and paranoia. State Security forces public support for Castro in those who oppose him through torture and blackmail, waging an ideological war to forcibly convert dissidents. When conversion fails, State Security destroys the dissident with imprisonment, forced labor, or death.