2008 Alfaguara Prize

Cuban writer Antonio Orlando Rodríguez was awarded the Premio Alfaguara de Novela 2008 for his novel Chiquita this past Monday, February 25th. Rodríquez’s text was selected for the Premio Alfaguara de Novela out of 511 manuscripts, 120 of were entered from Spain, 102 from Mexico and 76 from Argentina. The Premio Alfaguara de Novela is a prize that is awarded to a work written in Spanish that has never before been published. The prize is offered to Latin America as well as Spain, celebrating the fact that Spanish is thriving in all different parts of the world.

Chiquita is described as being:

. . . elegant and filled with life, with a notable graceful narrative and an unrelenting imagination that unfolds like an immense musical score, and reveals the life and times of an extraordinary character, the lilliputian Cuban Espiridiona Cenda. A dancer and singer in the variety theatres of the early twentieth century, Cenda was known as a “living doll” on the stage. The novel is written as an aged Cenda dictates the story of her life to a journalist who is trying to unravel the truth from the exaggerated and extraordinary accounts of her life. Even though she tries to present herself as a great star, little by little shadow of her decadent past slips aside, revealing her disenchantment, her regression to freak shows, and the intimate drama of an artist who does not want to be written off as a mere circus anomaly. The novel reconstructs the variety theatres of the twentieth century at it the peak of its splendor, and attempts to resurrect a life, in all of its genius, cruelty and delight, of an unforgettable character.

Rodríguez was born in Ciego de Avila, Cuba, in 1956. He is a writer, editor and journalist, and has published many works for adult and child audiences. Along with the award, he received a gift of $175,000 and a sculpture by Martín Chirino, a prominent Spanish sculptor.

More info available here. (For those who read Spanish, that is.) And a list of past winners is available here.