Huber Matos

Huber Matos was born in Yara, Cuba in 1918. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Havana in 1944 and was a founding member of the Cuban People’s Party. He gave up his position as Comandante in 1959 in protest against the radicalisation of his former comrades. Fidel Castro had him condemned to twenty years imprisonment in a show trial in December 1959, a sentence which Matos served to the very last day. His autobiography „Como llegó la noche“ (2002; t: How the night came) describes his breaking away from Castro, his trial and the years of imprisonment. Today he lives in Miami and is general secretary of the Cubans’ in exile organisation “Cuba Independiente y Democrática” that campaigns for a free and independent Cuba. He advocates sanctions against Cuba as well as violent measures to end Castro’s dictatorship.

The author died on February 27, 2014. 

© international literature festival berlin

Cómo Ilegó la noche 
Tusquets 
Barcelona, 2002