Cuban Writer Humberto Arenal Dies at 85

HAVANA TIMES, Jan 27 — Cuban writer, playwright and theater director Humberto Arenal died yesterday in Havana at the age of 85, reported the Prensa Latina news agency.

During his career Arenal was the director of major cultural institutions on the island, such as the Teatro Nacional, the Teatro Musical de La Habana, the Conjunto Dramatico of Matanzas and the Teatro Lirico Nacional de Cuba.

The author of El sol a plomo (1959), Los animales sagrados (1967) and Quien mato a Ivan Ivanovich? (1995), Arenal won the National Prize for Literature in 2007.

He is still remembered for the great success of his open-air staging of the play Aire frio, by Virgilio Piñera, in 1962.