Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist. He greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Carpentier grew up in Havana, Cuba and Paris. Carpentier always said he was Cuban. He traveled a lot, mostly in France, and to Mexico. He sided with revolutionary movements, such as Fidel Castro's Communist Revolution in Cuba in the mid-century. Carpentier was jailed and exiled for his leftist political philosophies.