The in-person lecture "The Lost Plays of Virgilio Piñera" will be celebrated on November 2nd, 2022, 7PM, at the American museum of the Cuban Diaspora. No registration is needed. It will be held in Spanish.

Virgilio Piñera (1912-1979) was one of the most significant Cuban writes of the twentieth century. Born in  Cárdenas, Cuba, he was a playwright, short story writer, poet, and essayist who became best known for his avant-garde theater, especially the play “Electra Garrigó” (1948), and his long poem “La isla en peso” (“The Whole Island,” 1943). 

Upon his passing in October 1979, Piñera left unpublished or scattered a large number of works. Since then, editorial and critical efforts have been made to gather them, though not always exhaustively. In the edited volume of his so-called “Teatro completo” (2002), for example, at least five works are missing—one of them, the first one he wrote; another, lost for six decades; another one, the last one he wrote before he died—that would complete his theater canon. This lecture will deal with these five works, the multiple reasons for their dispersion, and the importance of recovering them.