The collection consists of personal and working papers of Reinaldo Arenas. Included is a corrected typescript of his unpublished first novel "Que dura es la vida" (1959). Also included are typescript drafts and some galley and page proofs with holograph corrections of the novels and novellas Arturo, la estrella más brillante, El asalto, El color del verano o nuevo jardín de las delicias, La loma del angel, Lazarillo [de Tormes] (adaptation), Otra vez el mar, El palacio de las blanquísimas mofetas, Viaje a La Habana (Novela en tres viajes); drafts of the short stories collected under Termina el desfile and of the unpublished collection Adios a mamá; drafts for the play Persecución; drafts of the poetry collections El Central, Voluntad de vivir manifestándose, and Leprosorio, and notes and drafts of essays and articles, most of which were published in Necesidad de libertad. Included also is a copy of Arenas's will, dated 6 March 1990, and material about the author, such as interviews, essays and newspaper clippings, as well as a cassette of two songs, the lyrics of which Arenas wrote while hospitalized.

Arenas's correspondence with literary figures, publishers, and academic institutions, covering mainly the period 1980 to 1990, includes letters by Nestor Almendros, Lydia Cabrera, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the painter Jorge Camacho, Rita Geada, Juan Goytisolo, Enrique Labrador Ruiz, Helen Lane, Octavio Paz, Margaret Sayers Peden, Manuel Puig, Angel Rama, Emir Rodríguez Monegal, and Severo Sarduy.