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Arts and Literature of Cuba
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In addition to
The Kingdom of This World,
Carpentier’s
most famous novels include 1953’s
Los pasos perdidos
(
The Lost
Steps
), in which the protagonist, a musician, returns to his
South American homeland after living in New York. He trav-
els into the jungle, where he finds inspiration in a remote vil-
lage whose inhabitants are seemingly untouched by history.
El
siglo de las luces
(1962), published in English as
Explosion in a
Cathedral
, deals with the French Revolution and its effects on
the nations of the Caribbean.
La consagración de la primavera
(1978;
The Consecration of Spring
), is an epic, time-shifting
treatment of the Cuban Revolution.
El arpa y la sombra
(1979;
The Harp and the Shadow
) imagines a love affair between
Christopher Columbus and Spain’s Queen Isabella.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante:
Putting the Sonic in the “Boom”
A part of the Latin American “Boom” generation, Guillermo
Cabrera Infante is best known for his innovative use of lan-
guage. His writings are explosions of sound and wordplay, full
of alliteration, onomatopoeia, and colorful slang, with one allu-
sion begetting another and a seemingly endless stream of puns.
The following excerpt, from the novel
Infante’s Inferno
, gives
an idea of Cabrera Infante’s unique style:
Her laughter tinkled among the prowling panthers and still flamin-
goes. Flaming. Goes. All green shall perish. Perish the thinker.
Perishcope. I looked at her with my only eye. She sat back again: to
look at me: see me better. Gradiva, what green eyes you’ve got!
Proud she was. Maria Marga meeting a most lazar-like Lazarus
near San Lazaro: have faith and ye shall rise again! Lazy Daisy kiss-
ing leopards. Lepers. Mist metaphors.