Lo cubano en Paradiso

Abstract

The main theme of Paradiso is Cuban identity, a topic that obsessed José Lezama Lima and members of the Orígenes group. In Paradiso Lezama provides a synthesis of Cubanness expressed through the combination of the islands two principal products, sugar and tobacco that parallels the one proposed by Fernando Ortiz in his well-known essay Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar. The protagonist’s father and mother come from sugar and tobacco producing family respectively, and each displays features associated with those substances: sugar means power and energy, while tobacco refinement and artistic inclinations. The Colonel is energetic, willful, while Eloisa, the mother, is refined and artistic. Cemí will incarnate both tendencies. In that way, Paradiso does not just propose a theory about Cubanness, but dramatizes it.