Customs in the Cuban novel have its most singular expression in the famous novel Cecilia Valdés, penned by Cirilo Villaverde and published by the first time in 1839. About this novel it's been said that it's a colossal canvas reflecting an entire epoch from 1812 to 1831 in Cuba, possesion at that time of Spain in America.

Its author Cirilo Villaverde y de la Paz (1812 - 1894) wrote diverse novels, short stories and descriptions from his natal city, the occidental Pinar del Río. He was born at Santiago Ingenio, near of the surroundings of San Diego de Núñez, he studied at San Carlos Seminar, Havana, obtaining his Bachelor degree in law, devoting his life to education and journalism. He spent great part of his life in United States and died in New York.

The first version of the novel Cecilia Valdés or La Loma del Angel appeared in Havana in 1839; its definitive and larger version, was published in New York in 1882, being re-edited several times. He published other stories, such as: El espetón de oro (1838), La joven de la flecha de oro (1841), Dos amores (1887), El Penitente (1889), El guajiro (1890) and a series of chronicles under the title of Excursión de Vueltabajo (1838-1842).

Salvador Bueno, outstanding Cuban intellectual, talking about Cecilia Valdés novel expressed: ''it is a real compass like the Ariadna`s thread that leads us to capture the convulse images of a restless society searching for its own identity. Certainly, the novelist did not reduce his focus only to slavery phenomenon developed in Cuba, (...) he extended his lens to the entire society supported on this system''.

From Salvador Bueno you can enjoy the book Leyenda Cubanas, full of unforgettable characters and eternal phrases, unerasable by the years. Its pages holding remembrances, humor and wisdom, feature stories describing a zone of the Cuban cultural identity, tackling all the taste of the island`s folkloric culture.


Read the article Cecilia Valdés. Cuban Zarzuela.