Remembering Cuba's Past / Discovering Its Future: Giving Voice to Memory in Uva de Aragón's The Memory of Silence

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.8.1.0097
• Pages: 97-108
• Published date: 01 April 2016
• Date: 01 April 2016
• Author: Jeffrey C. Barnett
• Subject Matter: historical fiction,memoir,diaspora,exile,reconciliation,cultural relativity

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ACADEMIC ARTICLES

REMEMBERING CUBA’S PAST /

DISCOVERING ITS FUTURE: GIVING VOICE

TO MEMORY IN UVA DE ARAGÓN’S THE

MEMORY OF SILENCE

Jeffrey C. Barnett

Washington and Lee University, USA

Abstract

As a historical novel, Uva de Aragón’s The Memory of Silence explores the divergences

and commonalities in the lives of twin sisters separated at the outset of the Cuban

Revolution and as such complicates and enriches our understanding of Cuba’s future.

As the reader re-lives momentous events since the Revolution, one comes to the

realisation that the true value of the work lies in its balance of perspective. It would be

inaccurate to say that the novel offers an objective view of modern-day Cubans (both

those in exile and on the island). Instead, it offers two intentionally subjective views

that culminate in a synthesis of understanding: namely, that geo-cultural bonds are

greater than geo-political differences. In the end, The Memory of Silence is a book of

hope, but a hope that can only be realised once memory has been un-silenced.

Keywords: historical fiction, memoir, diaspora, exile, reconciliation, cultural relativity

The theme of memory tied to family – or memory through family – has a strong

presence in the Latin American literature. Cien años de soledad, in which the

memory of five generations of the Buendía family is recorded and chronicled,

perhaps serves as the most commonly cited example. Ironically, the very same

medium – the familial chronicle – ultimately results in its own un-doing. As José

Arcadio reads about his own act of reading the family’s memoirs, or rather as he

becomes aware of his own act of remembering, the novel reaches an insurmount-

able obstacle of infinity. He remembers remembering. He discovers discovery. In