The Oval Portrait

Contemporary Cuban Women Writers and Artists

The Oval Portrait was originally published as El retrato ovalado (Ediciones Union, Havana, Cuba, 2015). Editor Soleida Ríos set a difficult task for herself and nearly three dozen other Cuban women writers, artists, and thinkers. She asked each to "choose a mask. With it she spins her story so that her own image appears in the story as well as the connection (always mysterious) and the symbol with which she has chosen to represent herself." The result, beyond being a postmodernist tour de force, was "a perfect vehicle for introspection." As Ríos herself puts it: "The game requires us to go deep.... Shall we say: Rather than a portrait, construct a mirror, through which you may touch the difficult and shared places. And then, at the end, ask yourself the question: Which are your favorite lies?" By way of example, Jamila Medina Ríos writes in her piece: "I know (I have learned it well) the fate of my grandmother and her aunts, the fate of Maria and my mother, the blossoms of mythical women and women poets, of female warriors, of weak women and of the famous. My head shaved so as not to intimidate her with my abundant hair." The Oval Portrait has been exquisitely translated into English by Margaret Randall. As she writes: "In an era of special interest media and superficial travelogues, I believe The Oval Portrait offers readers a uniquely profound glimpse of the Cuban psyche."