Zoé Valdés facts for kids
Zoé Valdés (born May 2, 1959, in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban writer who creates novels, poems, and movie scripts. She has also directed films and writes a blog. She studied at a teaching college but did not finish her degree there. From 1984 to 1988, she worked for Cuba's office at UNESCO in Paris. Later, from 1990 to 1995, she was an editor for a magazine called Cine Cubano. Today, she lives in Paris with her daughter.
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Early Life and Education
Zoé Valdés was raised by her mother. Her father left when she was young. She started writing when she was about nine or ten years old. This was because her grandmother often read poetry to her. Her grandmother had Chinese and Irish family roots.
When Zoé was seventeen, she wrote her first collection of poems, called Respuestas para vivir (which means Answers for Living). She published her first poem at age 19 in El Caimán Barbudo, a literary magazine.
Zoé Valdés was part of the first groups of students educated after the Cuban Revolution. She studied at the Instituto Pedagógico Enrique Varona. She later earned a degree in Philology (the study of language and literature) from the Universidad de La Habana. She continued her studies in Paris at the Alliance Française. From 1984 to 1988, she worked for Cuba's office at UNESCO in Paris.
After returning to Cuba, she worked as an assistant director for the magazine Cine Cubano for four years (1990-1994). She also started writing scripts for the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC), which is Cuba's film institute. In 1990, she traveled to the United States to film her script Vidas paralelas (Parallel Lives). The filming later moved to Venezuela. In 1990, she won an award for this script at the XII International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.
Life in Exile
Zoé Valdés left Cuba in 1994 for political reasons. She openly disagreed with the government in Cuba and wanted to bring change through her writing. However, she started having problems with the magazine Cine Cubano and the film institute, especially with the director, Alfredo Guevara.
In the 1980s, she was arrested for driving two Spanish tourists around Havana. At that time, a law in Cuba stopped Cubans from interacting with foreigners. In 1991, she received an award, but the government asked her to donate it to them, which she refused to do. She also signed a deal with a French publisher for her novel La nada cotidiana without asking the government first. This was a very risky thing to do.
A sad event in July 1994, known as the Tugboat "13 de Marzo" massacre, pushed her to leave Cuba. Forty-one Cubans trying to leave the country drowned at sea. In 1995, she moved to Paris with her husband at the time, Ricardo Vega, and their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Attys Luna. She went to Paris because she was invited to give talks about romantic poetry.
When her first novel La nada cotidiana was published in France, she gave interviews about her work. Because of this, the Cuban government stopped her from returning to Cuba. Even though she saw leaving as a punishment, she also felt it gave her freedom to study and write. In 1997, she gained Spanish citizenship. After that, she was able to get French residency.
Works
Poetry Collections
Zoé Valdés started her writing career as a poet. In 1982, she won an award for her poetry collection Respuestas para vivir. She describes her poetry as personal and thoughtful. It often explores themes of desire and how time passes. She was inspired by many poets, including Juana Borrero, José Martí, and Federico García Lorca.
Her second poetry collection, Todo para una sombra (Everything for a Shadow), also won an award in Spain in 1985. She published two more poetry collections in Spain: Vagón para fumadores (Smoking Car) in 1996 and Cuerdas para el lince (Ropes for the Lynx) in 1999.
Film Work
Zoé Valdés wrote the script for Vidas paralelas (1993). This film tells the story of a man in Havana who dreams of moving to the United States, and another character in New Jersey who remembers his time in Cuba. She also wrote scripts for films like Amorosa and Desequilibrio y profecia. She co-directed the film Caricias de Oshún (2000) with Ricardo Vega, who was her husband then.
Novels and Stories
Valdés' novels often include parts of her own life. They explore themes of longing for the past, relationships, and a critical view of Cuba. She has published fifteen novels, and her work has been translated into many languages, including English, German, and Italian.
Her first novel, Sangre azul (Blue Blood), was written between 1987 and 1991. It was the only one of her novels published in Cuba. In this story, a young Cuban woman named Attys lives with her stepfather after her father left. As a teenager, she falls in love with a painter. When he moves to Paris, she goes to find him. She doesn't find him, but she does find herself.
One of her most famous novels is La nada cotidiana (The Everyday Nothingness), published in 1995 in Paris. It was later published in many other countries. In this novel, the main character, Patria (which means Homeland), is born in the year the Cuban Revolution succeeded. The perfect world promised by the revolution turns into a difficult situation filled with disappointment. Patria uses her writing to find hope.
Another novel, Café nostalgia (1997), tells the story of a woman named Marcela. She marries an older man so she can leave Cuba. The novel explores the memories and life of a woman living in exile. This novel also has some parts that are like Zoé Valdés' own life.
Her novel Lobas de mar (Sea Wolves) won the Premio Fernando Lara de Novela award in 2003. It is a historical fiction story about two female Caribbean pirates.
Zoé Valdés has also written two books for children: Los aretes de la Luna (The Moon's Earrings) in 1999 and Luna en el cafetal (Moon in the Coffee Plantation) in 2003. These books were illustrated by the artist Ramon Unzueta.
Political Views and Online Presence
Zoé Valdés is openly against communism and the government of Fidel Castro. She has said that she started noticing problems in Cuba when she was six years old.
She writes on a blog where she often criticizes the Cuban Revolution. She also wrote an article where she said that Fulgencio Batista, a former Cuban leader, was against fascism and that he started a revolution instead of just taking power. She has received a lot of criticism for her political views.
On social media, she supports the conservative Spanish political party Vox. Since February 2022, she has been writing for La Gaceta de la Iberosfera, a newspaper connected to Vox.
She has also supported Donald Trump's re-election in the United States. In an article, she wrote that people should pray for him to be re-elected, calling him "a patriot, a humanist, a peacemaker."
In 2020, she signed the Madrid Charter, which was started by Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox. This charter aims to fight communism around the world. It is also seen as a step towards creating a group of conservative leaders to challenge left-wing ideas.
Zoé Valdés has caused many discussions by writing articles that criticize other authors and public figures. These include blogger Yoani Sánchez, artist Tania Bruguera, climate activist Greta Thunberg, and Spanish author Almudena Grandes.
Awards and Recognition
- 1982 Premio de Poesía Roque Dalton y Jaime Suárez Quemain
- 1996 Finalist for the Premio Planeta for "Te di la vida entera".
- 1997 Premio Liberatur for La nada cotidiana.
- 2003 Premio Fernando Lara for "Lobas de mar".
- 2004 Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja for La Eternidad del Instante.
- 2013 Premio Azorín for "La mujer que llora".
Books by Zoé Valdés
- 2016 La noche al revés. Dos historias cubanas
- 2016 The Weeping Woman
- 2015 La Habana, mon amour
- 2013 La mujer que llora
- 2012 El ángel azul
- 2010 El todo cotidiano
- 2008 La ficción Fidel
- 2006 Bailar con la vida
- 2004 La eternidad del instante
- 2003 Lobas de mar
- 2001 Milagro en Miami
- 2000 El pie de mi padre
- 1999 Querido primer novio (English translation, Dear First Love, 2003)
- 1999 Los aretes de la luna
- 1999 Cuerdas para el lince
- 1998 Traficantes de belleza
- 1997 Café Nostalgia
- 1997 Los poemas de la Habana
- 1996 Te di la vida entera (English translation, I Gave You All I Had, 2011)
- 1996 Cólera de ángeles
- 1995 La nada cotidiana (English translation, Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada, 1999)
- 1995 La hija del embajador
- 1993 Sangre azul
- 1986 Respuestas para vivir
- 1986 Todo para una sombra
- 1986 Vagón para fumadores
Screenplays Written by Zoé Valdés
Zoé Valdés has written several scripts for films:
- Vidas paralelas, directed by Pastor Vega
- Amorosa, directed by Pilar Távora
- Espiral, directed by Miriam Talavera
- Yalodde, directed by Ricardo Vega
- Desequilibrio
- Cantata
- Profecía
See also
In Spanish: Zoé Valdés para niños
