Aire Frio

About

Aire Frio is a play by renowned Cuban avant-garde playwright Virgilio Pinera and was written and performed in 1959--the same year Fidel Castro successfully overthrew the Cuban government. The play is set entirely within the small, asphyxiating apartment of a poor woman whose only dream is to purchase a fan for her room. The play relies heavily upon symbolism to express itself; from the oppressive heat of Havana, Cuba's capital city, as represented by the room itself to the hope for positive change like a breath of fresh, cool air, as represented by the woman's hope for a fan. Pinera's play, along with many of his other works join the list of Cuba's premier, though unfairly neglected examples of 20th Century literature.