Open Your Eyes and Soar: Cuban Women Writing Now

The ten writers included here rose to prominence in the last decade of the twentieth century. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba underwent a drastic economic contraction that brought about an explosion of feminine narrative writing, largely in a need to reinforce the self-esteem so essential in moments of crisis and uncertainty. For the first time in Cuban literature, women focused on topics long con-sidered taboo—sexuality, eroticism, domestic violence, drug addiction, pedophilia—to bring attention to the social and moral crisis brought about by the loss of Soviet support. Writers include Ana Lidia Vega Serova, Karla Suarez, Marilyn Bobes, Adelaida Fernandez de Juan, Nancy Alonso, Aida Bahr, Ena Lucia Portela, Mirta Yanez, Mylene Fernandez Pintado, and Sonia Bravo Utrera.