Fantoches 1926

*Fantoches 1926* is a unique collective novel, serialized in the Cuban magazine *Social* by eleven writers and eleven illustrators associated with the Grupo Minorista. This groundbreaking work navigates between the collective improvisation of Surrealism and the structured English detective novel, offering a vivid mosaic of Cuban intellectual and artistic currents during a pivotal era.

More than just a novel, *Fantoches* transcends fictional boundaries by featuring its authors as characters and including parallel essays that reflect the sociopolitical attitudes of the time. It boldly anticipates the Afrocuban theme—a subject that would become central to Cuban arts in the 1930s—introducing it in a provocative manner that sparked significant debate among its contributors and within broader society.

Edited by Ana María Hernández, this edition illuminates the novel's irreverent tone, its sensationalist serial elements, and its nature as a *roman à clef*. It captures a crucial moment when European avant-garde influences converged with indigenous socio-political movements, creating an alchemical mix that presaged the mature works of a generation of Cuban writers and artists.