About Reinaldo Arenas
Reinaldo Arenas was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright who is known as a vocal critic of Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and the Cuban government. His memoir of the Cuban dissident movement and of being a political prisoner, Before Night Falls, was dictated after his escape to the United States during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and published posthumously. Arenas, who was dying of AIDS, killed himself in 1990. Arenas graduated as an agricultural accountant but later described his schooling as "communist indoctrination." The first time that Arenas was in Havana was in 1960. Around this age, he discovered that he was gay.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.