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

Recently, Chad gave me a few Traveler’s Literary Companions published by in Berkeley, CA. Whereabouts realizes that cultures around the globe are seriously misrepresented by the one or two books that actually make it as a translation. They print compilations of short stories written by a varied collection of authors from a single nation, which leads the reader on a literary tour that allows a deeper insight into the culture than any guide book could ever provide. These stories focus on the specificities that make a culture unique, through nuances and subtleties that can only be expressed in the form of a narrative.

The best thing about these compilations is that they feature a large number of authors that are generally unknown to American audiences. Authors that have never been translated get equal billing to literary heavyweights, which shows that the any one cultural narrative cannot be represented by a single author or a single famous book that happens to have made it through the strange politics of translation.