HAVANA — His novels recount gruesome murders, robberies, scams, bribery and humiliating secrets. But those are not even the most important themes of the stories told by award-winning Cuban writer Leonardo Padura.
Over the past four decades, Padura, 68, has managed to turn his series of police thrillers into a social and political chronicle of Cuba, especially Havana, where he has lived his entire life.
The island he describes in his books, which have been translated into dozens of languages, is a mix of economic deprivation, black syncretism, corruption, mischief, uplifting music and growing inequality, all seasoned by a revolution that marked the 20th century. century.
“I write about the problems of individuals in Cuban society. And often, in my books, more than dramatic conflicts between the characters, you will find a social conflict between the characters and their historical time,” Padura told The Associated Press in a recent interview at his home in Mantilla, the populous Havana neighborhood where was born, grew up and married.
The aroma of freshly brewed coffee is in the air, as is the song of the birds that inhabit the patio where their dogs are buried. In a nearby studio, his wife, screenwriter Lucía López Coll, works in front of a computer.
It is also in this house where Mario Conde, the main character of Padura’s work, was born. The downtrodden, nostalgic and chain-smoking detective has been with Padura since 1991, when “Past Perfect” was published, the first in the “Havana Quartet” series with Conde as the main protagonist.
Following Detective Conde’s trail is almost like taking the pulse of Cuba in recent years.
The last was in the 2020 novel “Decent People” in which, now over 60 years old, Conde becomes involved in the investigation of a murder and corruption case in the context of the historic 2016 visit of the former US president. Barack Obama and the Rolling Stones to the island.
“This character comes from a neighborhood similar to mine,” says Padura about Conde. “He is a man of my generation. …His view of his reality has evolved because I have evolved, and his feeling of disenchantment has a lot to do with the way we have been living all these years.”
Reflecting on the situation in Cuba following the tightening of US sanctions during President Donald Trump’s administration and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Padura says the island has barely emerged from the crisis and has not yet been able to recover.
It points to the lack of food and medicine, rising prices and the deterioration of health and education systems, as Cubans struggle with fuel shortages and constant blackouts.
“There is a historical fatigue,” he says. “People are tired, they have no alternatives and they seek it by emigrating.”
The soft-spoken chronicler highlights another impact of Cuba’s current economic crisis: a wave of popular protests and demonstrations not seen in decades.
“The main cry was for food and electricity,” Padura recalls of the protests in 2021 and, more recently, in March. “But people also shouted ‘Freedom!’ The lack of food and electricity could have been solved by fixing some thermoelectric plants and with a little rice and sugar… but the rest has not been talked about, and I think it is something that should be discussed in depth.”
Born in 1955, Leonardo de la Caridad Padura Fuentes studied literature at the University of Havana and worked as a journalist for state media in the 1980s.
He has won important awards, including the Hammett Prize, awarded by the International Association of Crime Writers, on two occasions (1998 and 2006); National Prize for Literature of Cuba in 2012, and Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature of Spain in 2015.
In 2016, Netflix launched “Four Seasons in Havana,” a miniseries starring detective Conde.
Despite international recognition, only a few of Padura’s books have been published in Cuba, and when they are, only a few copies are printed. Additionally, due to her sometimes dark, critical view of the island, her work is barely promoted or mentioned in official media.
Unlike many writers and intellectuals who in recent years decided to leave Cuba, Padura, who travels a lot, is determined to stay.
“I have many reasons to live outside Cuba but I think those that keep me here outweigh. One of them is my sense of belonging,” she says. “I have a strong sense of belonging to a reality, to a culture, to a way of seeing life, to a way of expressing myself.”
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