Cirilo Villaverde (1812-1894)

Novelist and journalist from Pinar del Rio province, he was a teacher when he developed an interest in literature, publishing in 1837 his short stories “La Peña blanca,” “El Ave muerta,” “La Cueva de Taganana.”  These brief narrations show great power of description and the capacity to transmit the cultural atmosphere of the period. In 1839 he published the first part of Cecilia Valdés, o, la loma del Ángel, the love story of a mulatto girl and a slave trader’s son who turns out to be her illegitimate brother, considered the best work of costumbrismo. Through the novel, whose second part did not appear until 1882, Villaverde created a splendid panorama of Cuba in the early 1800s, describing the prevailing customs and social condition of its people. In 1848 he fled the island following his participation in the conspiracy of Narciso López (whom he helped design the Cuban flag) and went on to direct the pro-independence newspaper La Verdad from New York.  His other novels are El Penitente (1844) and Dos amores(1858).