Caribe y exilio en La isla que se repite de Antonio Bení­tez Rojo

Abstract

This paper suggests a reading of Antonio Bení­tez Rojo's unavoidable essay La isla que se repite (1989), in order to approach and meditate on Caribbean cultures, attempting both to delineate a possible understanding of the relationship between his poetics and exile, and to analyse some of his choices as an intellectual and the way he conceived Caribbean in his essays. In the map drawn by Bení­tez Rojo, paradise islands appear along with those ruled by violence and death, and are sometimes confused. Plantation and Utopia are the main topics. Essays from La isla que se repite allow us to examine his wish to link his work to other traditions by means of a long rodeo through the rich Caribbean cultural matrices. It was his way to escape and transcend "nation" authoritarian discourse prevailing in modern Cuban history.