Negras y mulatas en el siglo XXI: una vision racializada del genero en novelas cubanas.

In this article I analyse the representation of Afro-Cuban women in five novels published in Cuba in the first decade of the 21st Century (Alexis Díaz-Pimienta’s Maldita danza , 2002; Pedro Pérez Sarduy’s Las criadas de La Habana, 2003; Marta Rojas’ El harén de Oviedo, 2004; Humberto Arenal’s Allegro de habaneras, 2004; and José Antonio Martínez Coronel’s Palimspsesto, 2008) in order to assert to what extent these representations contribute to undermine or perpetuate the subaltern status of Afro-Cuban women. Written as part of a larger project that shows the invisibilitation and alternization of Afro-Cuban women in contemporary Cuban narrative fiction, my analysis shows how some of these novels succeed in underlining the subalternity of Afro-Cuban women and in making their voices clearly audible, while other ones insist on traditional narratives that perpetuate the current status quo.
Key words: Cuba, representation, woman, mulatta