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reunification” (394). In the case of Reinaldo Arenas, this imaginary reunification will develop by establishing a counter-discourse that will allow him to counterattack the official story established by Fidel Castro and the Revolution.
Reinaldo Arenas’ writing is as a quest for an identity that is in opposition to a series of ideologies that he refused to conform to. As a homosexual he was supposed to conform to the ideals imposed on him since men and women had to behave and interact with each other in a specific way. The reason for Arenas’ search is explained by the way the Cuban government viewed him: Since he was a homosexual writer whose literary works spoke of homosexuality, Fidel Castro’s reaction to this particular marginalized group and the Revolution’s treatment of said people, he needed to redefine himself. Arenas was not satisfied with the changes that Castro and his regime were promoting. There was a “highly repressive sexual atmosphere that he encountered,” and which he opposed (Ocasio 17). To understand Arenas, both the person and the writer, Guillermo Cabrera Infante writes,
Arenas’ representation of the homosexual, with great emphasis on his personal experiences, enhances his opposition to a society that is impotent because it could not accept deviation from the established norm. The following statement made by Samuel Feijoó with regard to the role of the homosexual/marginalized subject in a revolutionary society will also be addressed in Arenas’