Zoé Valdés

Zoé Valdés (born May 2, 1959, in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban novelist, poet, scriptwriter, film director and blogger. She studied at the Instituto Superior Pedagógico Enrique José Varona, but did not graduate. From 1984 to 1988, she worked for the Delegación de Cuba at UNESCO in Paris and in the Oficina Cultural de la Misión de Cuba in Paris. From 1990 to 1995, she was an editor of the magazine Cine Cubano. She lives with her daughter in Paris. She has been married three times: with Cuban writer Manuel Pereira Quintero, Cuban government official José Antonio González and Cuban independent filmmaker Ricardo Vega.

Early life and education Zoé Valdés was educated by her mother and abandoned by her father when she was a child. Valdés began writing when she was nine or ten years old, thanks to her grandmother who would constantly read poetry to her. She published her first lyrical novel, Sangre Azul, in 1993. She studied at the Instituto Pedagógico Enrique Varona until her fourth year.

Exile Valdés was officially exiled from Cuba in 1994 for political reasons. In 1991, she received an award that was asked to be donated to the Castro regime, which she refused to do. She also signed a publishing deal for her novel La nada cotidiana with a French publishing company, without consulting the government. In 1995 she left the country and moved to Paris with her husband at the time, the filmmaker Ricardo Vega, and her daughter Attys Luna, who was one and a half years old. She published two other poetry collections in Spain titled Vagón para fumadores (1996) and Cuerdas para el lince (1999). Another character, Rubén, resides in New Jersey and remembers his time in Cuba. In this novel, Attys is a young and beautiful Cuban woman who lives with her step-father since her father abandoned her when she was young. The paradise promised by the revolution turns into a trap characterized by hopelessness and frustration. Patria relies on her writing to find any sense of real hope. The novel explores the memories and life of a woman in exile. The novel is somewhat autobiographic. It is a historical fiction novel about two female Caribbean pirates. She published an article in El Mundo about Fulgencio Batista where she declared that he was an antifascist and argued that rather than carrying out a coup d'état, he started a revolution. She has received a lot of backlash for her political views.

She shows on social networks her support for the conservative Spanish political party Vox, considered as a right-wing to far-right party by academics, political analysts, and many media outlets. Since February 2022, she began collaborating with La Gaceta de la Iberosfera, a VOX newspaper.

She has also supported Trump's re-election in the United States, of which she said in an article: "Let us pray that Donald Trump be re-elected in the next elections on November -- a patriot, a humanist, a peacemaker..."

In 2020, she became a signatory of the Madrid Charter launched by Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, to fight communism around the world. The appeal is also understood as a first step towards the creation of a conservative international to wage a "cultural battle against the left".

She has generated great controversies publishing dozens of articles attacking several authors and public figures, and even opponents of the Cuban regime such as multi-awarded blogger Yoani Sánchez, artist and activist Tania Bruguera, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Spanish author Almudena Grandes, and others.

Awards 1982 Premio de Poesía Roque Dalton y Jaime Suárez Quemain 1996 Finalista del Premio Planeta por "Te di la vida entera". 1997 Premio Liberatur por La nada cotidiana. 2003 Premio Fernando Lara por "Lobas de mar". 2004 Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja, La Eternidad del Instante 2013 Premio Azorín por "La mujer que llora".

Books 2025 París era una rumba 2016 La noche al revés. Dos historias cubanas 2016 The Weeping Woman 2015 La Habana, mon amour 2013 La mujer que llora 2012 El ángel azul 2010 El todo cotidiano 2008 La ficción Fidel 2006 Bailar con la vida 2004 La eternidad del instante 2003 Lobas de mar 2001 Milagro en Miami 2000 El pie de mi padre 1999 Querido primer novio (English translation, Dear First Love, 2003) 1999 Los aretes de la luna 1999 Cuerdas para el lince 1998 Traficantes de belleza 1997 Café Nostalgia 1997 Los poemas de la Habana 1996 Te di la vida entera (English translation, I Gave You All I Had, 2011) 1996 Cólera de ángeles 1995 La nada cotidiana (English translation, Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada, 1999) 1995 La hija del embajador 1993 Sangre azul 1986 Respuestas para vivir 1986 Todo para una sombra 1986 Vagón para fumadores

Screenplays Zoé Valdés has written several scripts for films: Vidas paralelas, Director Pastor Vega Amorosa, Director Pilar Távora Espiral, Director Miriam Talavera Yalodde, Director Ricardo Vega Desequilibrio Cantata Profecía