Diffuse Identities: Jewish Cuban-American Women's Poetry with Alina Galliano and Magali Alabau

Magali Alabau is a Cuban-American poet who co-founded the Spanish-English Teatro Dúo/Duo Theatre and the lesbian theater Medusa's Revenge. She was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and received a government scholarship to study theater at the Escuela Nacional de Arte de Cubanacán (National Art School) in Havana, though she was later expelled on suspicion of being a lesbian. She and other expelled students created a separate theater group, Teatro Joven, though their performance in 1965 was shut down again due to homophobia. Due to this intolerance, she immigrated to the United States in 1966. In New York, she helped create Teatro Dúo/Duo Theatre, one of the first Spansih-American theater companies there and the first lesbian theater. She began writing poetry in 1986 after retiring from theater, and she has since published 8 books. Her poetry engages themes of her homeland Cuba, eroticism and lesbian love, and Jewishness. Her publications include: Electra y Clitemnestra. Poema. Maitén Books, New York 1986; La extremaunción diaria. Gedichtband, Rondas, Madrid 1986; Ras. Medusa, New York 1987; Hermana. Betania, Madrid 1989; Hemos llegado a Ilión. Betania, Madrid 1991; Liebe. La Torre de Papel, Coral Gables 1993; Dos mujeres. Betania, Madrid 2011; and Volver. Betania, Madrid 2012. She has won awards such as first prize in Lyra's Magazine's poetry contest (New York, 1988), the Cintas Fellowship Award (1990), and the Latin American Institute Writers Poetry prize for best Spanish-language poetry book for Hermana (1992).

Alina Galliano was born in Cuba and  resides in the United States. She has published Between the eyelid and the cheek, Colombia, 1980 and Up to the present (poetry almost complete), Spain, 1989. She has been antologized in  several spanish publications, in Argentine and  Spain  among such publicatios are:
American: Contemporary Cuban poetry, Spain, 1986;  Poetas  cubanas en  New York/Cuban Poets in New York, Spain, 1988; Americanto, Argentina, 1988; The dawn of man, Argentina, 1991; Poetas cubanas en  iNew York / Cuban Poets in New York, Spain, 1988; and Paradise Lost or Gained? United States, 1991.  Anthology of cuban poets of the 19th century and the 20th century  by  Dr Milena Rodriguez Gutierrez  december of 2011 . Everything that  seemed  to be , an anthology published by Dr jesús J Barquete and Dr Virgilio López Lemus  in 2015 .Her  book of poems  The geometry of the incandescent ( or in fixed residence) won the award  "Letras de Oro  (1990-1991) in the genre of poetry  given by  Miami university . She published  In the Belly of the tropics. (1994)  by Serena Bay publishing house and six books  of poetry were published by  Editorial Betania , Spain in 2007 that  she  gathered under the title Another fire to liturgy   and such books of poetry are:  Of time and other doors,  The dance in the heart of the Emerald, The Book, Inevitable Syllable, Between the  Ivory and the Water and lithographs from the air.
She was  selected  in 2008-2009 for her  poetry and narrative by  The National Institute of Latin America., she  works on various literary networks.and is  working in two books of poetry : Of simple things  and Rapsodia para Manhattan, the last of both in spanish and english versions.  She was part of  Radio Cox in  New York city  and was  also  part of Magapalabras a radio and tv programs base on Chile from where  she  was reading the poetry of  other  poets of the world and her  own poetry. In March 2010  She  was part a poetry Reading  at Barnard College. And In February 2011  she participated at  the Book Fair of Minería in Mexico  DF and at  the  Miami International Book Fair during  November 2011. She  was  part of  the tribute to Cuban sculptor Roberto Estopíñan in 2015 at the University of Miami and Just published The days that I now have  at  Creative Space and Amazon  in 2016. She is part of the literry panel of judges at the literary red ,International Creativity  and is  presently co-hosting , next to the  cuban writer Ismael Lorenzo,  a weekly program about  the world of  cinema and books on Radio Creativity International.