Born in 1964 in Havana, Cuba, Omar Pérez is a member of the first generation to live fully under the auspices of the island''s post-1959 government: children raised to envision the present and future in socially experimental terms. His second poetry collection, Oíste hablar del gato de pelea?, or Did You Hear About the Fighting Cat?, offered a mature, yet unusual, response to that ongoing challenge. The book was originally published by Letras Cubanas in 1998.