Short stories
La guerra tuvo seis nombres
Not translated into English
Eduardo Heras León · 1968
Synopsis
Six short stories drawn from what Eduardo Heras León and his comrades in arms experienced at Playa Girón, in April 1961, each built around one fighter: Pardo, Mateo, Modesto, Piedra, Rogelio and Eduardo. These men show doubts, weaknesses, fear; Piedra hesitates when it comes to giving orders. The author called his book resolutely revolutionary, but it avoids propaganda and slogans.
Context
The book received the Union of Writers' David Prize in 1968. Luis Cino places it in the narrativa de la violencia, the current whose authors were afterwards looked on badly by the authorities, and reports that the political commissars took a dislike to it. The following collection, Los pasos en la hierba, mentioned in the Casa de las Américas competition in 1970, was censored. The stories are included in his Cuentos completos, from Letras Cubanas, in 2013.
Who it is for
Short stories, in Cuban Spanish; one needs to know that Playa Girón was the landing repelled in April 1961.
Prizes and reception
David Prize 1968; its author receives the national prize for literature in 2014, according to OnCuba News.