El Viejo, El Asesino, Yo, y Otros Cuentos

El viejo, el asesino, yo y otros cuentos gathers nine stories and a testimonial essay by Ena Lucía Portela, who began to publish in the 1990’s and has been recognized as one of the outstanding stars of recent Cuban fiction. Portela was born Dec. 19, 1972 in Havana, where she still lives. She is the author of the novels 'El pájaro: pincel y tinta china' (1999), 'La sombra del caminante' (2001), 'Cien botellas en una pared' (2002; winner that year of the Jaen Novel Prize awarded by the Caja de Ahorros of Granada, Spain, and 2003 winner of the Prix Littéraire Deux Océans Grinzane Cavour awarded by French critics), y 'Djuna y Daniel' (2008; recipient of the Cuban Critics’ Award), and the short story collections 'Una extraña entre las piedras' (1999) and 'Alguna enfermedad muy grave (2006). She writes occasionally for the newspaper El País of Spain,and for magazines such as Index on Censorship, Encuentro de la cultura cubana, SoHo, Crítica and La Siempreviva, among others. Portela’s texts have appeared in many anthologies of short stories and essays, both in Cuba and in many other countries. Her work has appeared in nine languages and in over twenty countries. She was selected in May, 2007 as one of the 39 most important writers in Latin America under 39 year sold. The texts included in the present volume were published between 1993 and 2008 in two collections and various magazines. This volume closes with a testimonial essay, 'Alas rotas,' first published in 2008. A short film based on Portela’s story 'El viejo, el asesino y yo,' 1999 winner of the Juan Rulfo Prize awarded by French International Radio, and used as the title of the present collection, will be shown at the Festival de Cine Pobre, in Gibara, Cuba. Besides being marvelous stories in themselves, this anthology provides an introduction to Portela’s works of fiction and non-fiction. Literature is a key element in Portela’s work, and references to books and authors of all eras are interwoven throughout her writings, as well as references to the plastic arts, film and music. The density of cultural reference is accessible, and is both serious and playful. Today’s Cuba appears as a backdrop of the stories, but not in a crude or touristic way. Even criticism is made to serve literary purposes. Iraida H. Lopez’ prologue offers an overview of the short story in Cuba since 1959, focusing particularly on the 1990’s generation. She discusses not only there current themes in Portela’s stories, but also many of the strategies utilized by the author to accomplish her goals. More than a hundred footnotes, in the production of which Lopez and Portela collaborated, elucidate both personal and academic aspects of the stories.