Abstract
Angel Cuadra Landrove was born in Havana on 29 August 1931. After completing his university studies in 1952 he qualified as a lawyer and, until his arrest, acted as the legal representative of the Cuban Writers Union. He was also a member of the ATENEO Society for Culture and Literature in Matanzas, and director of a theatrical company. His first collection of poems was very successful, both at home and abroad. He has since written three more volumes, which remain unpublished, the manuscripts being in the keeping of his brother-in-law. An associate of Fidel Castro in his struggle against Batista, Angel Cuadra Landrove later adopted a critical attitude towards the Cuban leader. On 8 April 1967 he was arrested and, at his trial the following month, accused of having ‘worked against the security of the State’. He was sentenced to death, this being later commuted to twenty years' imprisonment. Both the poems published here were written in prison.