Short Story

Tales and Short Stories have been more successful than novels due to our privilege of including a prominent author, such as Juan Bosch, among our writers.  Bosch is one of the most outstanding writers of these forms of narrative in Hispanic America, known for three significant collections of short stories and tales, Cuentos Escritos Antes del Exilio, Cuentos escritos en el exilio, y Mas cuentos escritos en el Exilio. Modernist tales and short stories surfaced in the second half of the 19th century, which is much later than other countries.  The first known short story is El garito by Angulo Guridi in 1854.

The first legends and tales of the oral tradition arrived to the island with the “conquistadores” or explorers, who, through their intellectuals and religious leaders, spread tales and legends all over the national territory.  In the 19th century, the first narratives take a “costumbrista” point of view, which celebrates local everyday life and customs. The most prominent figure of this tendency is Cesar Nicolas Penson, author of Cosas añejas. By the 20th century we find authors such Tulio Manuel Cestero and Virginia Elena Ortega, as well as Fabio Fiallo, who writes modernist tales influenced by Cuentos frágiles (1908), written by his friend Ruben Dario. Other influential writers of this form of narrative are Jose Ramon Lopez, Rene del Risco, Virgilio Diaz Grullon, Hilma Contreras, Sanz Lajara, Jose Rijo, Diogenes Valdez, Pedro Peix, among others. Since the “costumbrista” and socio-realistic themes brought to the scene by Bosch, Sócrates Nolasco, Néstor Caro and Marrero Aristy, until the tendency on the psychological presented by Diaz Grullon and the urban theme exhibited by del Risco or the fantastic approach by Peix, short stories and tales have experienced a variety of facets that makes this form or narrative rich in expression, theme and technique. Among writers from the 80’s, we find René Rodríguez Soriano, Ángela Hernández, Rafael García Romero, Pedro Camilo, Avelino Stanley, Ramón Tejada Holguín, César Zapata, Manuel García Cartagena and in the 90’s, Pedro Antonio Valdez, Pastor de Moya, José Acosta, and Luis Martín Gómez.

Basilio Belliard