{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2014}} '''Eliseo Alberto de Diego García Marruz''' (September 10, 1951 – July 31, 2011) was a Cuban-born Mexican writer, novelist, essayist and journalist. His numerous works include the novel ''Caracol Beach''.<ref name="latimes">{{cite news|title=Passings: Barbara Trister, longtime L.A. publicist, dies at 90; Eliseo Alberto, Cuban-born writer, dies at 59 |url=http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/03/local/la-me-passings-20110803|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127104548/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/03/local/la-me-passings-20110803|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 27, 2012|work=Los Angeles Times |date=August 3, 2011|access-date=August 9, 2011}}</ref> Alberto was nicknamed '''Lichi'''.<ref name="latimes" /><ref name="mherald">{{cite news|first=Fabiola|last=Santiago|title=With Cuban author Eliseo Alberto's death, a king is gone |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/02/2348905/with-cuban-author-eliseo-albertos.html|work=Miami Herald |date=August 7, 2011|access-date=August 9, 2011}}</ref>
==Biography== Alberto was born in Arroyo Naranjo, Cuba, on September 10, 1951.<ref name="latimes" /> His mother was Bella García Marruz.<ref name="mherald" /> 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.<ref name="mherald" /> Alberto's father often held tertulias, or gatherings of writers and other Cuban literary figures, at their home when he was growing up.<ref name="mherald" /> He worked as a journalist, based in Havana.<ref name="latimes" />
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.<ref name="mherald" /> Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez reportedly helped Alberto escape Cuba and find a new home in Mexico City.<ref name="mherald" /> He became a Mexican citizen in 2000.<ref name="latimes" /> 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."<ref name="mherald" />
Alberto's novels often touched on the themes of Christian morality, including punishment, redemption and forgiveness.<ref name="latimes" /> He focused much of his attention on characters living in his native city, Havana.<ref name="mherald" /> Some of his novels set in Havana include ''La fábula de José'' (''José's Fable'') and ''La eternidad por fin comienza un lunes'' (''Eternity Finally Begins on a Monday''), about the life of a lion trainer, Tartufo, who grieves after the death of the lion, named Goldwyn Mayer.<ref name="mherald" />
Although known as a novelist, Alberto was also a poet and screenwriter for films and television shows.<ref name="latimes" /> He worked as a professor at film schools in Cuba, Mexico and the United States, including the Sundance Institute.<ref name="latimes" /><ref name="mherald" /> His credits as a screenwriter included the film ''Guantanamera''.<ref name="mherald" />
A fierce critic of Cuba's Communist government, Alberto released a 1997 book criticizing Fidel Castro, entitled ''Informe contra mi mismo'' or ''Dossier Against Myself''.<ref name="latimes" /> In the 1997 book, Alberto revealed that the Cuban government had asked him to spy on his father's tertulias in 1978 while he was serving in the Cuban military.<ref name="mherald" /> He was also asked to spy on Cuban exiles returning to the country.<ref name="mherald" /> Alberto spoke about the book at the Miami Book Fair in 1997.<ref name="mherald" />
He was awarded the Premio Alfaguara de Novela literary prize for ''Caracol Beach'' in 1998.<ref name="latimes" /> The novel, perhaps his best known work, follows a war veteran living in a fictitious town in Florida who is haunted by visions of a Bengal tiger with wings.<ref name="mherald" /> ''Caracol Beach'' was translated into English for publication in the United States.<ref name="mherald" />
Eliseo Alberto died of complications from a kidney transplant, including heart and respiratory failure, in Mexico City on July 31, 2011, at the age of 59.<ref name="latimes" /> He had been diagnosed with kidney failure in 2009 and received the transplant on July 18, 2011.<ref name="mherald" /><ref name="voa">{{cite news|title=Cuban-Born Writer Eliseo Alberto Dies in Mexico |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/cuban-born-writer-eliseo-alberto-dies-in-mexico---126531953/164502.html|work=VOA News |date=August 1, 2011|access-date=August 9, 2011}}</ref> His funeral was held in Mexico City, while his ashes were returned to Havana.<ref name="mherald" />
== Books == * ''La fábula de José'' (2001), Ed. Alfaguara. {{ISBN|9788420441818}} * ''Caracol Beach'' (1998), Ed. Alfaguara. {{ISBN|9788420483702}} * ''Informe contra mi mismo'' (1997), Ed. Alfaguara. {{ISBN|9788420465548}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=0016718|name=Diego, Eliseo Alberto de}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alberto, Eliseo}} Category:1951 births Category:2011 deaths Category:Cuban emigrants to Mexico Category:20th-century Cuban novelists Category:Cuban male novelists Category:Mexican male novelists Category:Cuban screenwriters Category:Mexican male screenwriters Category:Cuban male poets Category:Mexican male poets Category:Cuban refugees Category:Exiles of the Cuban Revolution in Mexico Category:Writers from Havana Category:Writers from Mexico City Category:20th-century Mexican male writers Category:20th-century Mexican poets Category:20th-century Mexican novelists Category:University of Havana alumni Category:21st-century Cuban novelists Category:20th-century Cuban poets Category:21st-century Cuban poets Category:21st-century women poets