Which Cuban author wrote the memoir 'Before Night Falls'?

Reinaldo Arenas wrote the Cuban memoir Before Night Falls. Originally published in Spanish as Antes que anochezca in 1992, the book recounts Arenas’s childhood, literary career, persecution, imprisonment, exile, and life as a Cuban dissident.

Arenas was born in Cuba in 1943 and became known as a poet, novelist, and playwright. His writing and homosexuality brought him into conflict with the Cuban government, and he was imprisoned after being accused of ideological deviation and publishing abroad without official permission. He escaped Cuba during the Mariel boatlift in 1980 and dictated much of the memoir after reaching the United States.

A common mix-up is treating Before Night Falls primarily as a conventional political history. It is also an intensely personal account of poverty, sexuality, censorship, artistic survival, and exile. Arenas died in New York in 1990, before the memoir’s publication. The book later inspired Julian Schnabel’s 2000 film, in which Javier Bardem portrayed Arenas.