6 - Language Unbound: Zoé Valdés' La nada cotidiana

Summary

Zoé Valdés is one of the best-known Cuban writers of her generation. She was born in Havana in 1959 and left Cuba as an adult. She is well known internationally as an outspoken opponent of the Castros' regime. As Catherine Davies pointed out shortly after Valdés settled in Europe, she ‘has made a reputation for herself by criticizing the Cuban government and writing novels that some would call erotic and others pornographic’ (1997: 223–4). Valdés is well known for the use of explicit sexual language in her novels. She is actually a pioneer in doing so, and opened up a new chapter in the creation of the so-called Cuban literature boom of the 1990s. In La nada cotidiana the author clearly criticizes the socio-political situation in Cuba during the Special Period. According to Miguel González Abellás, Valdés ‘a juicio de algunos críticos, supuso un momento clave en el reciente bum de la narrativa cubana que existe entre finales del siglo XX y comienzos del XXI, sobre todo en Europa’ (2008: 17).

La nada cotidiana marks a turning point in the Cuban narrative of the Special Period and beyond, and as such has received substantial critical attention. Most critics – for example, Perla Rozencvaig (1996), Cristina Ortiz Ceberio (1998), Carmen Faccini (2002), María de la Cinta Ramblado Minero (2006), Isabel Álvarez Borland (2007), Liliana Soto Fernández (2008) and Elena Lahr-Vivaz (2010) – have emphasized the vulgar use of language in this novel, its open and detailed use of sexuality, and apparent criticism of the Cuban regime.