Raised in the Oriente Province of Cuba in the 1940s, Arenas
began his life-long love of the sea and water. Leaving home as a young
adolescent, he moves to Havana where he finds himself swept up in the
revolutionary spirit and joins a circle of writers and artists. His
first novel, "Singing from the Well," is published in Cuba, but as
Castro's oppressive regime gathers force, Arenas' homosexuality and
political writing make him a target. After being falsely accused of
molestation, Arenas is arrested and imprisoned at El Morro. Eventually
released from prison after dehumanizing treatment, Arenas flees Cuba in
the 1980 Mariel Harbor boatlift. After moving to New York with his
friend Lazaro Gomez Carilles, Arenas' hopes for a new life are destroyed
by AIDS, and he dies in 1993, at the age of 45.