New York no era una fiesta: El personaje de la flâneuse en Los Ausentes, de Teté Casuso

This article develops an analysis of the novel Los Ausentes (1945) written by Teresa Casuso, a Cuban exile who moved to New York City in the late thirties to escape the political turmoil wrenching her country. She and her husband had been student activists in the struggle against President Gerardo Machado, a period deeply marked in the collective consciousness of the country. The novel describes the experience of Cuban exiles in the city right before the Second World War from the point of view of a flâneuse or city wanderer, the female version of Walter Benjamin’s Paris flâneur. The female protagonist undergoes changes that reveal her excitement of discovering a different culture. As a young woman, her curiosity clashes against her nostalgia coupled with memories of violence and confrontation.