Viaje a la Habana

_Viaje a la Habana_ (1844) by María de las Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo, the Countess of Merlin (1789-1852), is a foundational work of Hispanic American Romanticism. This seductive text recounts the author’s re-encounter with the colonial society she left behind in her adolescence, marking it as a precursor to the emblematic “journey to the seed” in Caribbean literature. The book, an abridged version of the longer work _La Havane_ (published in Paris the same year), is critically important for its unique perspective on Cuban identity.

Set in colonial Havana, Viaje a la Habana traces the author’s childhood haunts, mapping the city’s topography and evoking a sense of nostalgic longing for a homeland simultaneously familiar and foreign. Through poetic recollections, she revives relatives and characters from her past—the African wet nurse, the Creole clan—alongside a broader tapestry of nascent Cuban nationality, including sugar patriarchs and guajiros (peasants).

Mercedes Merlin’s hybrid cultural background, split between Cuban and French influences, shapes this key text for understanding Hispanic American Romanticism. It portrays Cuba’s prolonged colonial condition and the awakening of an early nationalist consciousness. As a travel narrative, it subverts the conventions of the “grand tour” by replacing the exotic European destination with the distant yet deeply personal geography of her native island. This edition, with a prologue by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, highlights Merlin’s role in establishing a distinct feminine voice in Cuban literature and her complex relationship with her dual identity and homeland.