Cecilia Valdes by Cirilo Villaverde is a landmark 19th-century novel and a foundational work of Cuban literature. First published in 1839 and significantly expanded in 1882, it is a powerful and tragic romance set against the backdrop of colonial Havana in the 1830s. The story centers on the beautiful, light-skinned mulatta Cecilia Valdes, who is unaware that the wealthy white medical student she falls in love with, Leonardo Gamboa, is in fact her illegitimate half-brother. Leonardo, the scion of a powerful slave-owning family, becomes obsessed with Cecilia, despite being formally engaged to a woman of his own social class. Their ill-fated relationship exposes the deep-seated racial hierarchies, hypocrisy, and moral corruption of a slave-holding society. Villaverde provides a vast and detailed panorama of Cuban life, moving from the ballrooms of the white elite to the tenements of free people of color and the brutal sugar plantations where slaves toil. The novel functions as a sharp critique of the "peculiar institution" of slavery and the destructive legacy of colonialism, illustrating how the sins of the past inevitably poison the present. With its complex characters and intricate plot, Cecilia Valdes is more than a tragic love story; it is a national novel that captures the essence of Cuba’s fraught history, racial complexities, and social tensions on the verge of the independence wars.

Table of Contents:

• Cecilia Valdes. Part 1

• Cecilia Valdes. Part 2

• Cecilia Valdes. Part 3

• Cecilia Valdes. Part 4

• Cecilia Valdes. Part 5

• Cecilia Valdes. Part 6

• Cecilia Valdes. Part 7