Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo 

Brown University

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo is a Cuban fiction writer, blogger, and photojournalist. At the time of filming, an exhibit of his photographs of Havana was on display at Brown University. Born in Havana in 1971, Pardo Lazo graduated as a molecular biologist from Havana University and the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in 1994. He came into conflict with the Cuban government in 2009 when he attempted to publish his short story collection, Boring Home, which was censored by the Letras Cubanas publishing house. Since the book’s publication by Garamond (Prague) and El Nacional (Caracas), Pardo Lazo has not been permitted to publish, study, or work in Cuba. He was arrested on three occasions, harassed, and prevented from leaving the island by Castro’s secret police. Finally allowed to leave Cuba, he entered the United States, where he was a guest writer of the City of Asylum Project site in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pardo Lazo has continued his literary and political activities since his arrival in the United States.

Pardo Lazo’s videos are used in this Choices Program curriculum unit:
History, Revolution, and Reform: New Directions for Cuba