The Cuban actress Claudia Valdés announced this week her European tour with the solo show "My Daughter is an Astronaut", with confirmed performances in Madrid and Paris during December, and one date still to be determined in Barcelona.
In a video posted on her social media, Valdés detailed the itinerary: on December 3rd and 4th she will be at the Teatro Victoria in Madrid, and on December 6th she will perform at the Apollo Théâtre in Paris, in her Salle 168, a venue with a capacity of 168 people. Tickets for both cities are already available at claudiavaldes.net.
"This book and the show are dedicated to the world of autism, but the most interesting aspect of this show is that when I wrote it, I did not do so only thinking about families within the autism community, but rather for anyone facing something they never expected to happen to them," the actress explained in the announcement.
The work originated from a deeply personal experience. Valdés's daughter, Lucía, born in Miami in 2018 and the result of her relationship with actor and comedian Alexis Valdés, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at the age of two. Valdés noticed the first signs when the girl was only a few months old. From that experience, she wrote the eponymous book — published in print in December 2023 — as a form of personal therapy, and later adapted it for the theater.
The title plays with the phonetic similarity between "autistic" and "astronaut," encapsulating a hopeful vision of the capabilities of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. However, the actress insists that the message goes beyond that universe: "How one should face that and how one must navigate through [...] those situations that sometimes catch us off guard and ultimately teach us who we really are."
The European tour follows a successful season in the United States. According to the announcement made last June, the show traveled to several cities between June and August: Miami, Louisville, Naples, Houston, The Woodlands, and Tampa. “It has been a success in every city where I have performed,” Valdés stated in the video this Sunday.
Valdés, born in Havana in 1988 and based in Miami since 2008, built her career in Cuban cinema with titles such as "Los dioses rotos" and "La edad de la peseta" before developing her theatrical work in exile. Both she and her husband Alexis have maintained a critical stance against the regime in Havana.
Regarding the biggest obstacle faced by the autism community, the actress was straightforward in previous statements: "My greatest fear is not autism, not at all. My greatest fear is us, it's society. We do not adapt to finding and understanding people who are different."
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