SOURCE: “An Hour with Roque Dalton,” in Fiction International, Vol. 16, No. 2, Summer/Fall, 1986, pp.133-43.

In the following interview, translated by Elsie B. Adams, Dalton discusses the relationship between ideology and literature, especially as it pertains to his work.

Roque Dalton, winner of the 1969 Casa de las Américas prize for The Tavern and Other Places, was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, on May 14, 1935. He studied anthropology and law. A student leader and journalist, he participated actively in the politics of his country; he was a member of the Communist Party in El Salvador for 22 years. On numerous occasions he was imprisoned for his revolutionary activity; in 1961 he was exiled from El Salvador by the military government. He returned clandestinely various times, and in 1964 was again imprisoned, but this time managed to escape. During his last years, he lived in Czechoslovakia and Cuba. He published three books...