February 11, 2005
Arthur Miller exits left
by Liza Sabater
CNN.com - Arthur Miller dead at 89 - Feb 11, 2005
I grew up in Puerto Rico during the 1970's. It was a time when people, all over Latin America, were either being red-baited, jailed without due process or simply disappeared. To be branded a liberal, a progressive, needless to say a social or marxist, was a big risk all throughout the region. Public figures could call themselves whatever they wanted, but it was the everyday citizen who had to be wary of those labels. One finger pointed and you could lose your job, your house, your family, your life.
I remember how in my particular neck of the Catholic schools woods, The Crucible was not encouraged in our curricula. (The movie with Daniel Day-Lewis is a gem.) Death of A Salesman with its longing for a world before suburbs passed; but it was that other book, and the themes it contained, that most eluded discussions in our American literature classes. Of course, Miller's red-baiting experience during the "Red Scare" was marginally mentioned.
For that matter alone he will have a special place in my pinko-lefty heart. He refused to become a puppet of the fascists, and yet at the time to honor one of the McCarthyist traitors, he did.
And I have to say that, even if his marriage to one the most beautiful women of the times seemed banal, you have to give him credit for spending almost five years of his life with her. If his plays have anything to say about those years and the woman, it seemed like there was more there than just a tabloid blurb.
Thanks Mr. Miller. Now go hang out with Mr. Davis. I'm sure y'all have a lot to talk about.
Posted by Liza Sabater in Culture, Literature, Obituary, Obituary
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