Before the big fire, the Metropolitan Museum was open Tuesdays and Sundays until ten o’clock. We hope that as soon as repairs are completed and the museum reopens, it will have the same schedule. —Editors, 2025
8 Poor Ramoncito wrote only the phonetic representation of these phrases. With my extensive knowledge of the Italian language (I studied with Giolio B. Blanc), I was able to make the necessary corrections. I must clarify that this is the only correction I have made in the manuscript. The translation into English would read like this: “The poison of knowledge is one of the many calamities humans su fer. The poison of knowledge, or, at least, that of curiosity.” —D. S. Even though his translation is correct, we doubt very much that Mr. Sakuntala ever studied with Baron Giolio B. Blanc. The high social status of this nobleman would not have permitted him to rub elbows with people like Mr. Sakuntala, let alone accept him as his tutee, unless there were highly personal motives. —Lorenzo and Echurre, 1999
Giolio B. Blanc was for many years the editor of the magazine Noticias de Arte de Nueva York and therefore had probably met Daniel Sakuntala, who had literary pretensions. —Editors, 2025
9 “Cuban writer Daniel Sakuntala” (!): We question this statement, obviously the product of friendship. Not even the lengthiest directories register that name. —Lorenzo and Echurre, 1999
10 A serious error of appreciation on the part of my friend Ramoncito. After studying for more than twenty years and with the superior knowledge I acquired of alchemy, astrology, metempsychosis, and the occult sciences, I would have believed him and could have helped him to conjure away this evil. Had he trusted me, Ramoncito would be alive today. By the way, the dagger he gave me (pure gold, with an ivory handle) has disappeared from my room. I am sure it was taken by a black man from the Dominican Republic who accompanied Renecito Cifuentes when he visited me a few days ago. —D. S.
11 The “syrupy potion” I gave him was just Riopan, a stomach relief medication against diarrhea. —D. S.
12 Out of pure intellectual honesty, I am leaving this passage as it appears in the manuscript by my friend Ramoncito. I want the text to be published in its entirety. But the lascivious abuse he refers to can only be a product of his psychological state and of the nightmare he was having. It is true we slept that night on the same bed; it’s the only one I have. I heard him scream, and to bring him out of his delirium, I shook him several times. Naturally, when he woke up, it was logical for him to find my hands on his body. —D. S. We are of the opinion that Ramón Fernández was sexually harassed, as he indicates, by Mr. Sakuntala. The moral history of this character, who disappeared naked into Lake Erie in the midst of a communal orgy, proves our point.
—Lorenzo and Echurre, 1999
We have already indicated that Daniel Sakuntala disappeared close to the shore of Lake Ontario, where his clothes were found. We have not been able to confirm reports about a supposed orgy. —Editors, 2025
13 It seems that Ramoncito Fernández had, without being aware of it, a woman who really loved him: the Wendy’s cashier. From my investigation I learned that out of her salary she had, little by little, covered the so-called embezzlement that occurred while she was in charge, without ever disclosing the name of the thief. Obviously that woman was another person, besides me, whom Ramoncito could have asked for help, had he been more trusting and less obstinate. —D. S.
14 It is true that Ramoncito knew about carpentry. He built me an excellent bookcase once. The hammer in question was not his but mine. I had lent it to him when he installed the air-conditioning in his studio with the help of Miguel Correa. —D. S.
15 This protection system is the most efficient ever devised. At the same time the alarm goes o f, the metal curtain drops over the wall where the piece of art is being exhibited. It is very expensive to install. There are only three masterpieces in the world that have this protection. According to the research carried out by my friend Kokó Salás, the curator, the three works are: La Joconde, by Leonardo da Vinci; Guernica, by Pablo Picasso; and The Burial of Count Orgaz, by Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco. —D. S. Daniel Sakuntala is completely misguided when he calls Kokó Salás a “curator.” In all truth, he is a common criminal,** dedicated to the illegal traffic of works of art in Madrid, under the protection of the Cuban government in Havana. —Lorenzo and Echurre, 1999
**To label Kokó Salás as a common criminal is to underestimate his character and historic significance. Kokó Salás was a sophisticated, gifted person (it is now impossible to determine whether he was a man or a woman) who worked for an international spy ring in service to the Kremlin. Under the secretary for mineral rights, Victorio Garrati, he conspired indefatigably and took part in intrigues until he finally achieved the annexation of Italy and Greece to the Soviet Union in the year 2011. For more information, see La Matahari [sic] de Holguín, by Teodoro Tapia. —Editors, 2025
English translation copyright © 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 by Dolores M. Koch Copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Reinaldo Arenas
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House
of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Some of the stories in this collection were first published in English in the following: “The Glass Tower” in Grand Street 61 (New York, 1997). “Halley’s Comet” in Hopscotch: A Cultural Review (Vol. 2, No. 1, Duke University Press, 2000). “Mona” in The Penguin Book of International Gay Writing, edited by Mark Mitchell (New York: Viking, 1995). “Something Is Happening on the Top Floor” in Dream with No Name: Contemporary Fiction from Cuba, edited by Juana Ponce de Leon and Esteban Rios Rivera (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999). “Traitor” in Index on Censorship: Lost Words, edited by Alberto Manguel and Craig Stephenson (London: Orion, 1996).
All of the stories in this collection were originally published in the following Spanish language works: Adiós a mamá (De La Habana a Nueva York), copyright © 1995 by the Estate of Reinaldo Arenas, copyright © 1995 by Ediciones Altera, S. L. (Barcelona: Ediciones Altera). Viaje a La Habana (Novela en Tres Viajes), copyright © 1990 by Reinaldo Arenas (Miami: Ediciones Universal). Termina el desfile, copyright © 1981 by Reinaldo Arenas, copyright © 1981 by Editorial Seix Barral, S. A. (Barcelona: Seix Barral). Final de un cuento, copyright © 1991 by Reinaldo Arenas (Huelva, Spain: Diputacion Provincial de Huelva). “The Empty Shoes,” originally published as “Los zapatos vacios,” copyright © 1999 by the Estate of Reinaldo Arenas (Encuentro, No. 12/13, Spring/Summer 1999, Madrid).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arenas, Reinaldo, 1943–
Mona and other tales / Reinaldo Arenas ; translated by Dolores M. Koch— 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-0-307-42692-5
1. Arenas, Reinaldo, 1943—Translations into English. I. Koch, Dolores. II. Title.
PQ7390.A72 A24 2001
863’.64—dc21 2001026552
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