This second film from acclaimed American artist Julian Schnabel is based on the book of the same name by Cuban poet and writer Reinaldo Arenas, and is drawn from his own life. Arenas was born in the Cuban province of Oriente in 1943 and died in New York exile in 1990. After growing up poor but free as a child, he became a revolutionary at age 14. At 20 he received a national award for his first novel Celestino before Dawn. Further works, however, were published by friends abroad because the Castro regime began to harass him for his homosexuality; indeed, he was imprisoned in 1973 and his books were confiscated. In 1980 Castro allowed homosexuals, the insane and former political prisoners to emigrate. Arenas was one of 125,000 people who took advantage of this opportunity. But not even in the United States did he find the paradise he dreamed of.