CARLOS RIPOLL
581
Token exceptions are occasionally permitted to appear in print,
but on the whole, Cuban literature has been forced into this mold.
Novels, plays, and poetry alike praise the builders of socialism and
describe the process of overcoming bourgeois prejudices. Or they
satirize the
mogollon,
the antisocial character who is uninspired by
revolutionary shibboleths, complains of shortages and sacrifice, mis–
ses work, and fails to meet his goals. In sharp contrast with these
wooden figures are the familiar and equally flat
personajes positivos
(positive heroes), whose attitudes and deeds the reader is encour–
aged to emulate. The language is always simple and straightfor–
ward, preferably colloquial, even in verse, so that the masses can
easily assimilate the message and better identify with the characters.
This is particularly so in writing intended to popularize and
draw support for the latest government program. During the cam–
paign to eradicate illiteracy, UNEAC gave one of its 1962 awards to
such a novel:
Maestra voluntaria,
by Daura Olema Garda. Since then
similar tendentious works have often been favored in literary con–
tests and by the editorial committees of the state publishing houses.
At the time of the drive to produce a ten-million-ton sugar cane har–
vest,
Casa de las Americas
honored Miguel COSSlO Woodward for
Sac–
chan'o,
the story of a heroic, Stakhanovite cane cutter who renounced
everything, even his wife, in order to carry out his work. More re–
cently, when the government sought a
rapprochement
with the exile
community, prizes went to
Contra viento y marea,
by Grupo Arefto,
and
De la patriay el exilio,
by Jesus Dlaz, books which praised Cubans
in exile who support the Castro regime.
Etiopia: la revolucion descono–
cida,
a volume of essays by Raul Valdes Vivo, and the short story col–
lection
La sangre regresada,
by Arnaldo Tauler, about the campaign in
Angola, were among the works accorded special commendation
when the government was seeking mass support for intervention in
Africa.
With the publication of
Enigma para un domingo,
by Ignacio Car–
denas Acuna, in 1971, a new kind of detective novel became very
fashionable in Cuba. The critics have classified it as "socialist and
revolutionary" and are intent on pointing out that it is devoid of "the
sickly sensationalism and the cult of violence, sex, and individual–
ism" that characterize the genre in capitalist cultures. This socialist
version of the mystery emphasizes the efficiency and honesty of the
State Security police and related agencies and the cooperation given
them by the people. The plot typically revolves around struggles
against spies and infiltrators from the CIA, counterrevolutionary el–
ements abroad, and delinquents on the island.
