This drawing was inspired by the most stunning and beautifully written novel published in Cuba in the last ten years, "Cien Botellas en una Pared" by the prizewinning young Cuban novelist Ena Lucía Portela. Published in 2002, it has been translated into French, but not yet into English. It paints a sharp, compelling tragi-comic picture of the heroine's progress from school in the 1980s to maturity in the 1990s, against the background of a mansion long given over to multi occupation in Havana's louche but still distinguished Vedado district. The drawing shows the house on what the heroine calls "happy hammer corner." Like everywhere in Havana, somebody is always banging and tapping, dividing floors and putting shacks on the roof, "inventing" yet more living space. You can see the young heroine with her school-friends Linda and Yadelis (bottom right), and later with her abusive lover Moisés in the window (top left) from which he falls, thanks to the mysterious Alix (swinging from the parapet), to an entirely timely death. Other characters shown include the would-be trumpeter Poliester (nobody can pronounce Dniester, his real name), parish priest and confessor Padre Ignacio, the drunks permanently in the hallway and "el Megaterio," the fierce dog who terrorises the building. |
