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Fiction
C
uba has produced many outstanding novelists and
short-story writers. This chapter profiles a handful
and provides brief excerpts of their work. The writers
are known for exploring different genres or for developing dis-
tinctive styles.
Lydia Cabrera: Elucidating Myths
The life’s work of Lydia Cabrera, observed the Cuban scholar
Mariela A. Gutiérrez, was to “elucidate the myths of her peo-
ple” and chronicle “the spiritual make-up of the Cuban
nation.” An
ethnologist
, Cabrera wrote scholarly works dealing
with various aspects of Afro-Cuban religion and culture. But
she also wrote finely crafted short stories about the same
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