Nilo Cruz is a Cuban-American playwright, born October 10, 1960 in Matanzas, Cuba.
When Cruz was just a baby, his father, a political dissident and shoe salesman, was imprisoned for two years as a result of his resistance to Cuba's increased militarization (itself a response to Cuba's new ties with the Soviet Union). As a result, the young Cruz was primarily raised by his mother, two older sisters, and aunt. In 1970, when Cruz was 10 years old, his family emigrated from the island and moved to Miami, leaving his two sisters behind. Subsequently, Cruz only returned to the island once, when he was 20, was in order to visit his two sisters.
Though Matanzas is famed as a center of poetry and...
