Reinaldo Arenas was born on July 16, 1943 to a beautiful young woman (Olatz Lopez Garmendia) who was soon abandoned by Reinaldo’s father. Consigning herself to a life of bitter chastity in this machismo society, Reinaldo’s mother returned with him to her parents’ farm in Cuba’s Oriente province. Reinaldo’s childhood was defined by the contrast between his family’s unmitigated poverty and the natural splendor that surrounded him; in the abundance and anonymity conferred by those opposing circumstances, he found an immeasurable freedom. The boy followed his impulses, whether he was writing poetry, watching young men bathe nude in the river or reveling in the unpredictability of a torrential downpour.