El viejo, el asesino, yo, y otros cuentos

Ena Lucía Portela (Havana, 1972) is one of the most distinctive Cuban voices of the generation known as the novísimos—writers who emerged in the 1990s, at the height of the so‑called “Special Period”. A novelist and short story writer, she combines intellectual play, black humor, sexuality, and violence in highly crafted narratives that are as thought‑provoking as they are entertaining.

This is the first anthology devoted specifically to Portela’s short fiction. It brings together nine stories published between 1993 and 2008, originally scattered across collections and journals, and closes with the testimonial piece «Alas rotas» (2008) about living with Parkinson’s disease.

The volume situates Portela within the landscape of post‑revolutionary Cuban narrative: the “Special Period” crisis, the “new boom” of Cuban literature, the debate around marginality, and the questioning of “grand narratives” and utopias. At the same time, it highlights her singular poetics: the coexistence of the ludic and the contestatory, the constant presence of literature itself, and the erosion of borders between reality and fiction.

The extensive introductory essay by Iraida H. López maps the evolution of Cuban short fiction since 1959 and explains what makes the novísimos—and Portela in particular—formally and thematically new. The notes to the stories, prepared jointly by López and Portela, clarify cultural and intertextual references while preserving the author’s playful, often ironic voice.

This edition is especially well suited for courses on contemporary Cuban narrative, post‑revolutionary Latin American fiction, gender and sexuality, the fantastic, and metafiction.