Francisco Fontanilles y Quintanilla
Autonosuya, curiosa novela político-burlesca is a curious novel, first published by installments in the Cuban newspaper EL IMPARCIAL DE MATANZAS in 1886. As a book it was published posthumously in 1897. At that time, Cuba was going through the necessary war, initiated by José Martí in 1895 to secure the island’s independence from Spain, a war that would end three years later with the U.S. intervention. From an ideological standpoint, Autonosuya is an indictment of Cuban independence and self-government. With that objective, Fontanilles narrates what would happen on the island once Spain grants Cubans their autonomy. The result is a novel about two dictators (the Sabicú brothers), written in the satirical tradition of many pro-Spanish newspapers in Cuba at the time, but also a novel that describes dystopic scenarios such as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s travels (1726) and H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895). In this type of narrative the future is described as chaotic and undesirable, as the novel’s purpose is to constitute a social critique of Cuba’s politics and racial composition. From the formal standpoint Autonosuya constitutes a remarkable oddity, as dystopian narrative bloomed much later, and certainly not in Spanish but in English literature.By publishing this annotated edition of Autonosuya, curiosa novela político-burlesca, the editors want to trace its origin back to this tradition, and the so called dictatorship novels that were published in Latin America during 19th century. Autonosuya may be considered as the first one of its kind published in Cuba. More than 40 years later Ramón Valle-Inclán published his great novel Tirano Banderas (1926). It is also, however, a novel ragged by racism, and the fear of blacks promoted by white slaveholders and their supporters after the Haitian Revolution. No wonder, the two dictators in this novel are mulattos, one of them a former slave overseer, described as savages and barbarians that once they take power, start a racial war, and sink Cuba into chaos and misery.
