Lezama Lima: Soltar la lengua

Cuban writer José Lezama Lima’s life, literary imagination and enduring influence come into focus in a documentary screening at the Coral Gables Museum. Presented Wednesday, September 9, Lezama Lima: Soltar la lengua commemorates the 50th anniversary of the author’s death and the 60th anniversary of the publication of his landmark 1966 novel Paradiso.

Directed by Cuban filmmaker Ernesto Fundora Hernández, the 2018 documentary draws on interviews with writers, artists, scholars, friends and former students to examine Lezama’s life and work, including the cultural and political pressures he faced in Cuba. The film also considers Paradiso, a partly autobiographical novel that intertwines family memory, Cuban history, mythology and philosophy through Lezama’s distinctive poetic language.

Fundora will introduce the screening and take part in a post-film conversation with writer and essayist José Prats Sariol, who knew Lezama during his later years. The program is part of the museum’s two-part Persecuted: Artists Censored by Communist Cuba documentary series. The film will be presented with English subtitles.