The second book of Sonia Rivera-Valdés’ stories show once again the sensibility and talent this writer has of taking her readers to that Cuba of now and then that hide behind political propaganda from there and here. She doesn’t limit herself to Cuba, though, and her citified readers will find themselves once again walking the streets of their city discovering the intimate spaces and solitary rituals that warm the apartments of New York.

In the tales of Stories of Little Women and Grown-Up Girls, Sonia Rivera-Valdés takes us by the hand through the imagination and feelings of Ana’s childhood. Ana, in real life, represents the known Cuban artist, Ana Mendieta (whom Sonia knew and counted among her friends), and the writer reconciles her tragic death using the gift of her privileged imagination. She presents the story of a political prisoner who discovers an alternative to love, and that of a university professor who is owner of herself, among others.

In her stories the writer uses the contemporary language of Cuban youth, managing to put the reader in the middle of the characters’ interior realities, and independent of the poverty or deprivations they face, they manage to survive, even when they have to make decisions that the reader might interpret as taboo.

Sexuality is not a central theme of this book, but it is the thread that unites most of these stories narrated by women. Some of them bring us back to her first book of stories, The Forbidden Tales of Marta Veneranda, where the women manage to complete or re-live what by being forbidden was almost incredible in their own minds. The book culminates with “Life Orders”, the story that might be the most courageous and shocking that Marta Veneranda has heard, although in this case it is her daughter who lends her ears. The stories of women that Sonia Rivera-Valdés presents keep this writer among the Hispanic talents who place the literary work of Latino writers of this city in the top echelon of originality, talent, and sincerity.