Virgilio Piñera Llera (August 4, 1912 – October 18, 1979) was a Cuban author, playwright, poet, short story writer, essayist and translator.
Nevertheless, Piñera's work was rediscovered by Cuban and Latin American authors such as Severo Sarduy, Víctor Fowler, Rolando Sánchez and Ricardo Piglia.
Beginning the previous year, he began to publish his poems in the literary magazine Espuela de plata (Silver Spur), the predecessor to Orígenes.
The following year, he published La isla en peso (The Weight of the Island), subsequently regarded as one of the heights of Cuban literature, but in its time the object of scorn from fellow poets Gastón Baquero, Eliseo Diego, and critics such as Cintio Vitier.
Piñera also became friendly with Witold Gombrowicz and presided, with the help of Cuban writer Humberto Rodríguez Tomeu, the committee that translated Ferdydurke into Spanish.
[citation needed] Virgilio Piñera was arrested in the Night of the Three Ps in 1961 and briefly detained, but was released shortly after due to international pressure.