Carlos Alberto Montaner, the renowned writer, political commentator and syndicated newspaper columnist whose passion for the freedom of his native Cuba never wavered, died Thursday. He was 80.
“There was not a day in his life that Cuba was not present,” said his daughter, journalist Gina Montaner, from Spain. “My father is a man who defended the freedom to live and die, and he wanted to die with dignity on his terms, and he did.” Montaner, who suffered from a degenerative disease, died in Madrid, the city that welcomed him in the 1970s along with his wife, Linda, when they were in their twenties, leaving their homeland behind. There he raised his children and found success as a businessman with Firmas Press and Editorial Playor.
In Spain, he witnessed a historic moment that served as a compass for his dream of freedom for Cuba: the transition from the Franco dictatorship to democracy. “It was a great education to see that transition that he always dreamed of for Cuba,” his daughter said. “To see how it was possible to go from great hatred and resentment to a national consensus, to turn the page and reach democracy. “ Cuban activist and academic Sebastián Arcos Cazabón called Montaner “the first of the public and respected figures in exile to support the peaceful opposition” inside Cuba.
