La catedral de los negros of Marcial Gala or an (not) happy Babel

Abstract

The following article analyzes the novel La Catedral de los Negros, by the Cuban writer Marcial Gala, which won Alejo Carpentier Prize in 2012. Gala’s work shows Cuban literature’s new openness towards some social issues that weren’t addressed in public before. It brings up a ruptural and polysemic gesture just from the title. It also presents other changes, such as different voices telling the story in a fragmentary way, giving multiple testimonies of the facts and cancelling the possibility of establishing a single truth. The novel shows an unhappy reality, describes, through broken fragments a decadent and violent world. Marcial Gala gives voice to peripheral and marginal characters, overthrowing the idea of the hegemonic speech capable of representing reality.