Carlos A. Aguilera

The Cuban poet, writer and cultural critic, Carlos A. Aguilera came to Frankfurt City of Refuge in August 2007 and after his stay there ended, moved on to Hannover City of Refuge.

From August 2007 to 2009, the Cuban writer, poet and cultural critic Carlos A. Aguilera lived in Frankfurt as guest author of Frankfurt as city of refuge. Carlos Aguilera cannot return to Cuba after he joined the protests against the imprisonment of 75 authors and intellectuals in spring 2003. After that the Cuban government effectively banned his re-entry into his country, as reported by amnesty international.

He has published several volumes of poetry, fiction, and essays while still in Cuba including Retrato de A. Hopper y su esposa (Cuba 1996) and Das Kapital (Cuba 1997). In exile Carlos Aguilera has published the collection of essays and poetry Die Chinamaschine (Graz 2004) and the novel Teoría del alma china (Mexico 2006; translated into German Theorie der chinesischen Seele, Leipzig 2007) – also translated into other languages such as French, English and Croatian. He was also the editor of several anthologies of Cuban poetry and prose. In Frankfurt Carlos Aguilera continued his widespread literary activities and had quite a number of public readings and discussions. He also wrote a play which was produced in a German theatre. He is now living in Prague, where he is teaching Spanish and literature.