Page 34 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

32  INTRODUCING CUBA

Cuban Literature

A frequent theme in the literature of Cuba has always been
the question of national identity, and the genre has evolved
with a marked interest in social problems and questions
about reality. The works of the great 20th-century Cuban
authors are regarded as classics, and younger authors are
beginning to attract attention on the international scene.
The Revolution was a golden era for publishing, because
production costs for books were very low. However, the
trade was plunged into sudden crisis in the early 1990s
and many publishers are only now slowly regaining
their former status. Every year Havana plays host to an An expressive portrait of the great Cuban
International Book Fair, a major literary event involving poet Nicolás Guillén
authors and publishers from all over the world.
The 20th Century
the island of Cuba, which would The leading interpreters of
The 19th Century
also be in the interests of their 20th-century Cuban literature
The birth of Cuban literature is owners”. José María de Heredia were the poet Nicolás Guillén
usually dated from Espejo de (1803–39) was a romantic poet (1902–89) and the novelist
Paciencia, an epic poem who introduced the American Alejo Carpentier (1904–80),
written in the early 1600s landscape into New both of whom were sent
by Silvestre de Balboa, World literature and was into exile because of their
originally from the forced to live in the opposition to Gerardo
Canary Islands. US and Mexico Machado’s regime and
However, truly because of his their fierce criticism of
national literature nationalist stance. Batista’s dictatorship.
only began to Gertrudis Gómez Guillén, who was of mixed
emerge in the de Avella neda race, spoke for the black
19th century, with (1814–73), another population, exposing among
the call for an end romantic, lived for a other things the brutal
to slavery and for long time in Spain and working conditions of the
Cuban independence Félix Varela, defended the black macheteros, the labourers
from Spain. writer-philosopher population in her who cut sugar cane on the
Among the literary novel Sab. Cirilo plantations. After Castro’s
figures of that time, various Villaverde (1812–94) was a victory, Guillén was pro-
names stand out. Father Félix patriot and author of Cecilia claimed as “national poet”
Varela (1788–1853) was an Valdés, a famous abolitionist and asked to head UNEAC,
eclectic philosopher and work which was made into the Cuban writers and artists’
patriot who wrote a pamphlet a zarzuela (operetta) in the union. Taking as his starting
extolling the “need to stamp 20th century by the Cuban point the rhythms of dance
out the slavery of the blacks on composer Ernesto Lecuona. and traditional musical genres
However, the towering such as son (see p34),
figure in the 19th century was grafted onto the
the great José Martí (1853–95), classical Spanish
an intellectual, journalist and octo syllable,
author who expressed his Guillén’s stylistic
nationalist ideas in elegant studies gave
literary form (Ismaelillo and rise to bold
Versos Sencillos are his best- experiments
known works), and became as early as 1931
a leading exponent of Latin in works like
American modernism. Songoro Cosongo,
Another figure in this poemas mulatos.
movement was Julián del Casal, Alejo Carpentier,
a decadent, symbolist writer. an architect,
The premature deaths of these musicologist and
La Edad de Oro, José Martí’s two brought the development writer acutely José Lezama
children’s periodical of innovative literature to a halt. aware of the Lima

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