Miguel Barnet is one of the most original writers of Latin America. His fiction, poetry, and essays derive their energy from the cultural diversity of Cuba while providing varied and often ambivalent responses to the shifting political demands of the Socialist regime after 1959. Within the broader framework of contemporary Latin-American literature, Barnet's most distinctive and enduring contribution lies in the testimonio (testimony). He coined the term to describe a novel-length first-person narrative based on eyewitness accounts, edited from transcripts and molded into a work of literary merit by a professional writer. Testimonio is essentially a hybrid: aesthetic aspirations to literariness combine with scientific claims of objectivity; stylistic devices of fiction merge with research and documentation borrowed from the social sciences.

Miguel Barnet was born on 28 January 1940. His "official" biography in the Diccionario de literatura cubana (Dictionary of Cuban Literature, 1984) is laconic and elusive: even the facts mentioned by...