Former Cuban political prisoner Tomás Fernández Travieso died this March 28, in Miami, Florida, where he had resided for more than two decades.
Noted as a writer and playwright, Fernández was one of the collaborators of Cuban director Lilo Vilaplana in the creation of the film Planted2021.
The testimony of what he experienced during his almost two decades of confinement served to create the story that, unlike its counterpart, Planted (2023), is not only inspired by the facts, but is a faithful representation of the true story of its participants.
With more than 20 years of experience as a Spanish teacher in the capital of exile, the academic also began to develop his literary skills since he was in prison, managing to complete the play in confinement Prometheuswhich would later be presented in Miami.
His most famous work was the novel The Silence of Yesterdayin addition to also publishing several stories such as The return, My brother Johnny y The Party House. However, much of his work remained unpublished.
Fernández was born in Havana, Cuba, on September 24, 1942, and on April 18, 1961, at the beginning of Fidel Castro’s dictatorship, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, accused of “crimes against the State.”
He remained a political prisoner for 19 years, finally being released by the Venezuelan government, during the presidency of Luis Herrera Campins. After this he came to live in the United States, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree from Creighton University, in Omaha, Nebraska, and a Master’s degree from Florida International University in Miami, Florida.
A story for the big screen: Tomás Fernández and Planted
Through social networks, Cuban filmmaker Lilo Vilaplana dedicated an emotional farewell to the former political prisoner, with whom he became friends during the production of his film Plantedwhose filming began in 2019.
“Ángel Francisco De Fana had warned me, that Tomás Fernández Travieso did not like to talk about his experience in the Cuban political prison. But we needed his valuable testimony for the film Planted. That afternoon we met at the iconic Versailles restaurant, and after talking for almost two hours, he promised that we could tell his story,” Vilaplana began in his Facebook post.
The director of films like Planted y Horse He commented that, despite the pain of reliving what happened, Fernández narrated his experience in detail, contributing to the film that became a tool for denouncing the horrors carried out by the Cuban government, thanks to its crude portrait of what he experienced. his victims.
“In his statement, Tomás could hardly speak because of his memories. He cried as if time had stopped at that moment in that cell, we, behind the cameras, cried too (…) His testimony will remain forever in the room that remembers those shot in the communist wall and tribute is paid to him in the Museum American of the Cuban Diaspora,” Vilaplana concluded.
Rest in peace, former political prisoner and Cuban writer Tomás Fernández Travieso.
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