In Cuba, “reality doesn’t knock on the door, it opens the door and breaks into your house,” writer Leonardo Padura said in an interview with AFP, reflecting on the uncertainty Cuba faces under increasing pressure from Washington.
Padura, considered the most widely read Cuban author in the world, spoke to AFP at the Institut Cervantes in Paris while promoting the French version of his book “To Havana.”
Cuba has been under a U.S. embargo since 1962 and faces a severe economic crisis, exacerbated by an energy blockade imposed by Washington since January.
Gas shortages and power outages have put pressure on Cubans, including Padula, 70, who was initially reluctant to discuss the situation in his country and his hometown of Havana.
“In Cuba, it doesn’t matter if your economic situation allows you to have a different relationship with reality. Reality doesn’t knock on the door, it opens the door and breaks into your house,” he said.
Still, the author would not live anywhere else, and despite the “complex” living conditions, Havana has always been his muse, although he admits that he is “lucky” financially compared to others.
“When the power goes out, I don’t have any internet connection and I can spend all day waiting to get online… to get my work done,” he said.
“I told my brother the other day, ‘Every time we go out for a drive, it’s not that we take one more trip, but that we’re able to take one less trip because we don’t know when we’re going to have gas again’.”
-“Obvious” uncertainty-
He said that writing “Going to Havana” to revisit the history of this city through realistic chronicles and novels is a “debt” and a “necessity” that he will complete in 2024.
Two years later, the situation in Havana “had worsened, but the urban structure and people’s needs remained essentially the same,” he said.
“Maybe this has all accelerated in the last two years since I wrote the book,” he added.
“Ten years ago, what was happening in Cuba? There was a Rolling Stones concert, Obama was visiting Cuba, there was a baseball game between a Cuban team and a Major League Baseball team,” he said.
He added that compared to life in Cuba today, “it’s like we’re in two different countries.”
During this time, Donald Trump was re-elected in 2017 and 2025, pursuing a policy of “maximum pressure” on Cuba and openly considering seizing the communist island.
Padula worries that Washington could launch military action or even an explosion, and the “collateral damage” would be “terrible.”
Asked what he would think of if he had to tell a story in a future Havana, he said: “I don’t know what Havana will look like tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
“The future is a huge question mark for everyone and uncertainty is widespread. But in the case of Cuba, it’s a very clear, very painful reality that is right in front of us.”
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