"Reinaldo Arenas: The Sexual Politics of a Queer Activist"

On March 13-15, 2008 the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies organized a conference, Changing Cuba/Changing World. I presented a paper entitled "Reinaldo Arenas: The Sexual Politics of a Queer Activist." Please visit the Center's webpage to access all papers at that conference: http://www.cubasymposium.org, under the publications tab.

Dallas International Book Fair (Oct. 25-26, 2008)

Guest speaker at the Dallas International Book Fair on October 25, 2008 where I spoke about my books on Reinaldo Arenas.

Past book presentation at the University of Kentucky

JORNADAS SERIES LECTURE

"The Making of A Cuban Gay Activist in Exile: Reinaldo Arenas"

Dr. Rafael Ocasio,
Charles A. Dana Professor of Spanish,
Agnes Scott College

Friday, November 16, 4:45-6:00PM

Student Center Addition, Room 230

Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), the renowned exile Cuban novelist and short-story writer, became one of the most vocal figures among political activists opposed to the Castro regime shortly after his arrival in the United States on May 5, 1980 as a penniless Marielito refugee. This
presentation examines his rising trajectory in the United States as a controversial political activist, a role that he maintained until his death by suicide. On a more personal level, I also trace my relationship with Arenas while doing research on this intriguing writer, in a journey that I started some twenty years ago as a graduate student at the University of Kentucky. -Rafael Ocasio

Frameline E-News on A Gay Cuban Activist in Exile

Subject of the films Before Night Falls and Odd People Out, Reinaldo Arenas is the subject of a new book by Rafael Ocasio, A Gay Cuban Activist in Exile. Examining Arenas's fiction, critical articles, the epic poem El Central, and hundreds of letters to friends and critics, Ocasio explores the writer's bold criticism of the Castro regime and his bitter conflict with notable pro-Castro supporters such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The book is available from the University Press of Florida.

Frameline E-News, November 8, 2007

"Seres extravagantes"; "Odd People Out"

“This documentary explores issues left inconclusive in Arenas’s autobiography, particularly issues about his arrest on charges of corruption of minors and about his sham marriage. Interviews with fellow writers Antón Arrufat and Delfín Prats and a close friend Tomás Fernández Robaina…are of particular importance, because Prats and Fernández Robaina appear characterized in a rather satirical light in Arenas’s autobiography. Also speaking about Arenas’s sexual views is Ingrid González, a former actress, whom Arenas married in 1973 in order to gain access to goods and services available only to married couples…Arenas’s conflictive relationship with his mother Oneida comes across dramatically in the short but emotional interview with the aged woman. This documentary effectively portrays dramatic glimpses of a multi-faceted, rebellious sexual outlaw. Arenas has become an icon among Latin American and Latino gays who often suffer from the homophobic attitudes of their native societies.”

- Rafael Ocasio, Charles A. Dana Professor of Spanish, Agnes Scott College, and author of the forthcoming book A Gay Cuban Activist in Exile: Reinaldo Arenas, University Press of Florida.

http://cart.frameline.org/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=T665

Past presentation

Join me in my presentation of my book at Agnes Scott College!
A.C.M.E.* Lecture Series

"A Gay Cuban Activist in Exile: Reinaldo Arenas"

Wednesday, November 7
10 a.m. Buttrick G-4


Between Reinaldo Arenas's arrival in the United States in 1980 and his suicide a decade later, the Cuban exile produced his most mature writing. In his book, A Gay Cuban Activist in Exile, Ocasio explores Arenas's bold criticism of the Castro regime, including his fierce advocacy of homosexuality and his willingness to alienate Latino and Latin American audiences in order to remain true to his self-proclaimed identity.


*Academic Colloquia Monthly Exchange program for the entire campus community

A Gay Cuban Activist in Exile: Reinaldo Arenas

This blog is about my new book on the exiled writer Reinaldo Arenas.

Click on image for larger view.