Pedro Juan Gutiérrez

Pedro Juan Gutiérrez born in 1950 (Matanzas, Cuba) and he was a journalist. He began to work with eleven years old, like a vendor of ice-creams and newspapers. He was a soldier, swimming and kayak instructor, agricultural worker, technician in construction, technical designer, radiostation speaker and journalist for 26 years.

He shares literature with painting and sculpture. Gutiérrez is author of several poetry books, and author of Dirty Havana trilogy, The king of Havana, Tropical Animal (winner of the Spanish prize Alfonso García-Ramos 2000), The insatiable spiderman, Dog meat (winner of the Italian prize Narrativa Sur del Mundo), The snake nest (winner of the Prix des Amériques insulaires et de la Guyane 2008), Our GG in Havana, Pobre diablo, the short stories book, Melancholy of the lions and Mestizo heart (Corazón mestizo), a Cuban travel book..

   With Trilogía sucia de la Habana (Dirty Havana trilogy), Gutiérrez began his narrative series about Havana (Central Havana Cycle). He concluded this series with a fifth book: Carne de perro, in which he crudely describes life on the margins of society in the Cuban capital. His use of dirty realism has led some critics to call him the “Caribbean Bukowski”.

   Named master of "dirty realism", Gutiérrez depicts life in the shady alleys of Havana in a direct, visceral style. His books describe contemporary Cuba from his semi-autobiographical perspective as a disillusioned journalist. Gutiérrez' narrative voice is skeptical, intellectual, humorous, crass, sardonic, and bluntly frank. His literary persona is chiefly concerned with escaping poverty and the pursuit of sex, rum, and writing.

   Gutiérrez' stories are typically gritty, tragicomic accounts of himself and his countrymen hustling for money, searching for pleasure and happiness, and struggling in desperate situations. Most chapters incorporate heavy use of a form of irony. His stories illustrate the difficulty of achieving self-sufficiency and contentment in a dysfunctional and poverty-stricken society living under paternalistic government.

   Despite his grim depiction of many aspects of Cuban life, Gutiérrez' writing stresses his overriding love for Cuban culture. He frequently praises Cuban music, resourcefulness, and joie de vivre. Gutiérrez writes scornfully of people who avoid risk and self-expression in exchange for smothering safety and boredom-inducing banality.

Books in English