Miguel Mejides - Havana Noir

Ena Lucía Portela is the author of various novels, including Cien Botellas en una Pared , which won the 2002 Jaén Novel Prize in Spain and the Dos Océanos — Grinzane Cavour Critics Prize in France. Her work has been translated into more than seven languages. She was recently named to the Bogota 39, the Colombia International Book Fair’s list of the thirty-nine most important Latin American authors under the age of thirty-nine. She lives in Havana.

Mariela Varona Roque is an engineer at the Empresa de Construcción de la Industria Eléctrica in Holguín, Cuba. A David Prize winner, she is the author of two books of short stories, El Verano del Diablo and Cable a Tierra. Her work has been published in Cuba, Brazil, Spain, and Puerto Rico.

Yoss (José Miguel Sánchez Gómez) has a degree in biology from the University of Havana. He is the award-winning author of the story collections Timshel, W, and Precio Justo; and the novels Polvo Rojo and Morfeo Verdugo . His fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including the journals Eleftherothypia in Greece, Galaxie and Les Auteurs in France, and MAX in Italy. He lives in Havana.

Cuban slang for the U.S.

An olúo is the highest level that can be achieved by a babalao, or babalawo (both forms are acceptable). The only hierarchy that exists in the Rule of Osha (also spelled Ocha) is the Order of Babalaos, who are children of Orula (also known as Ifá), god of divination.

In Santería, godchildren are those sponsored in the rituals by particular santeros or babalaos — godfathers or godmothers.

A tablet and necklace used for divination.

Olokun is a very mysterious deity who reigns over the bottom of the sea. “Giving to Olokun” is usually recommended by babalaos, not santeros or diviners, and only when a person is on the brink of death.

In Santería, a restless spirit, a child who’s born to die and be born again.