Eliseo Alberto

Who was Eliseo Alberto?

Eliseo Alberto de Diego García Marruz was a Cuban-born Mexican writer, novelist, essayist and journalist. His numerous works included the novel Caracol Beach. Alberto was nicknamed Lichi.

Alberto was born in Arroyo Naranjo, Cuba, on September 10, 1951. His mother was Bella García Marruz. His father, Eliseo Diego, was one of Cuba's best known poets and a member of a well known Havana-based family which included writers, screenwriters and musicians. Alberto's father often held tertulias, or gatherings of writers and other Cuban literary figures, at their home when he was growing up. He worked as a journalist, based in Havana.

Alberto fled into exile in Mexico in 1990. The Cuban government had executed Arnaldo Ochoa and had begun to more strictly persecute writers and other intellectuals during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez reportedly helped Alberto escape Cuba and find a new home in Mexico City. He became a Mexican citizen in 2000. Alberto never returned to Cuba and spoke of his experiences in exile, "The worse thing about exile is that the places you inhabit don't remind you of anything ... exile becomes your homeland."