21 h 22 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 21 h 22 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to love in a city where skin color and money decide who belongs?
In colonial Havana, Cecilia Valdés wants a better life than her birth seems to allow. Beautiful, proud, and of mixed race, she forms a bond with Leonardo Gamboa, the spoiled white son of a wealthy family. Their desires run against a social order that sets firm limits on whom they may love.
Cirilo Villaverde places their story inside a city whose sugar wealth rests on enslaved labor. Leonardo’s father, Cándido Gamboa, guards a fortune tied to the slave trade, while his mother, Rosa, wants a proper marriage for her son. Around them, families, servants, suitors, and rivals reveal how private hopes meet public rules.
What you’ll discover
- A woman between worlds Follow Cecilia’s ambition as beauty and desire meet the barriers of parentage and color.
- Love under pressure Watch Cecilia and Leonardo’s bond strain against family expectations and Havana’s strict social ranks.
- Wealth and its foundations Look behind the Gamboa household’s comfort to the slave trade that helps sustain it.
- A city in detail Walk through Havana’s streets and customs with a narrator who pauses to examine its people.
- The limits of talent Meet José Dolores Pimienta, a skilled man who knows the boundaries imposed on him.
Who will love it
Readers who love sweeping historical fiction, family secrets, ballroom scenes and vivid city streets will enjoy this novel. It also draws those curious about colonial Cuba.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A secret visit sets the story going
- A girl with no mother runs loose in the streets
- The Little Bronze Virgin arrives at the dance
- A spoiled son and a house of quiet quarrels
- A ball in Havana and a rival from the country
- Christmas at the sugar mill, and the cost of luxury
- Cecilia is locked away and her life changes
- The color line decides who may hope
- Slavery and power shape every comfortable life
- How the story is told and how to listen
Who’s who
- Cecilia ValdésA strikingly beautiful young woman of mixed race, raised by her grandmother, who hopes a white lover will lift her out of her class.
- Leonardo GamboaA charming, spoiled law student who takes what he wants, loves being adored, and cannot choose between duty and desire.
- José Dolores PimientaA gifted clarinet player and tailor who loves Cecilia in silence and cannot accept watching a white man win her.
- Nemesia PimientaJosé Dolores's sharp-tongued sister and Cecilia's friend, who gossips, schemes and wants to steer both Cecilia and Leonardo her own way.
- Isabel IlinchetaA thoughtful young woman who manages her father's coffee plantation and is promised to Leonardo, though she doubts his heart.
- Doña RosaLeonardo's devoted mother, who spoils him, guards her pride as a wife, and holds a long grudge against a hidden rival.
- Don Cándido GamboaA wealthy Spanish businessman and slave trader who rules his family with silence and tries to control the fate of those around him.
- María de ReglaAn enslaved nurse exiled to the sugar mill, who loves her daughter and her husband Dionisio and knows the secret of Cecilia's birth.
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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Cecilia Valdés, o La loma del ángel
by Cirilo Villaverde · 1839
A street girl with a coral rosary draws every eye in Havana, and a rich student sets out to win her.
Challenging10–20 hours to readEspañol
Learn a language with challenging classicsEspañolFrancésAlemánItalianoJaponésPortuguésInglésHow we measure levels
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In short
Picture a closed carriage creeping through the dark streets of Havana one November dusk in 1812. A tall gentleman steps down, slips into a small house, and asks after a dying young woman and the baby taken from her.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A secret visit sets the story going
The novel opens at dusk in November 1812. A calash rolls along Compostela Street with its curtains fastened. A tall gentleman gets down at San Juan de Dios Alley and taps twice on the door of a small house.
A mulatta named Josefa lets him in. They speak in low voices about a baby girl who has been sent through the Royal Foundling Home so she can carry the name Valdés. Josefa says she has marked a blue crescent on the child's left shoulder, as he ordered.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1839
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 13 h 55 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Villaverde, Cirilo. Cecilia Valdés, or The Angel's Hill. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/cecilia-valdes-or-the-angels-hill.
Villaverde, C. (2026). Cecilia Valdés, or the Angel's Hill. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cecilia-valdes-or-the-angels-hill (Original work published 1839)
Villaverde, Cirilo. Cecilia Valdés, or The Angel's Hill. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cecilia-valdes-or-the-angels-hill.
@book{villaverde2026cecilia,
author = {Villaverde, Cirilo},
title = {Cecilia Valdés, or The Angel's Hill},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cecilia-valdes-or-the-angels-hill},
note = {First published 1839}
}
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What is Cecilia Valdés about?
It is a novel of Havana between 1812 and 1831 about a beautiful young woman of mixed race, the rich white student who courts her, and a family secret. It also shows slavery and class in colonial Cuba.
Who is Cecilia Valdés in the novel?
She is a foundling given the name Valdés, raised by her grandmother Chepilla in the Ángel neighborhood. Known as the Little Bronze Virgin, she hopes a white lover will lift her out of her class.
Is Cecilia Valdés a true story?
It is fiction built on real history. Villaverde used real streets, customs and public figures such as Captain General Vives and the policeman Tondá. He published the first volume in 1839 and the full, extensively rewritten version in 1882.
The author
Cirilo Villaverde
1812–1894 · Cuban novelist
Cirilo Villaverde (1812–1894) was a Cuban writer. He was born in San Diego de Núñez, Cuba, and died in New York City. He lived in Cuba and the United States. His novel Cecilia Valdés appeared in an early version in 1839 and in an expanded version in 1882.
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