Aixa de la Cruz: love, emptiness, and spirituality in contemporary literature

SAV AIXA DELACRUZ

In this new episode of Secretos a Voces (in Spanish), Lea del Pozo talks with writer Aixa de la Cruz about her latest novel, Todo empieza con la sangre (Everything Begins with Blood), a book that explores desire, emotional dependence, faith, and emptiness in vibrant, direct, and critical prose.

The conversation also weaves in a shared reading of the classic Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, along with a broader reflection on the mechanisms—sometimes desperate ones—we use to fill existential voids.

Todo empieza con la sangre: love as an abyss

In Todo empieza con la sangre, Aixa de la Cruz builds a powerful, emotionally urgent narrative about Violeta, a protagonist trying to fill a persistent void. That hole some people feel inside and don’t know how to fill. Some try with drugs, others with other people’s bodies; some live lives that aren’t theirs or sign up for self-discovery courses or a church, or simply take Valium.

The protagonist, Violeta, tries almost everything: friends, faith, the body, rituals… A search with no guarantees in a present saturated with options but marked by emotional fragility.

Spirituality, trauma, and narratives of distress

During the interview, Lea del Pozo and Aixa de la Cruz discuss themes that run through both the novel and the cultural moment we live in:

  • Whether spirituality can offer answers to existential emptiness.
  • The mother figure.
  • Inherited trauma.
  • Emotional distress.
  • The trivialization of psychiatric diagnoses.
  • Meditation as a practice in the face of emptiness.
  • Toxic love, with Wuthering Heights as a narrative example.
  • Literature as a space for asking complex questions.

About the author

Aixa de la Cruz (Bilbao, 1988) is a writer with a degree in English Studies and a PhD in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. She has published four novels, including Cambiar de idea (Changing One’s Mind), winner of the 2020 Euskadi Literature Prize, finalist for the Dulce Chacón Prize, and named one of the best books of 2019 by Babelia, the literary supplement of El País.

She is also the author of the essay Dicen que estás muerta (They Say You’re Dead) and the short story collection Modelos animales (Animal Models). Her work has been translated into English, Italian, and Portuguese. She writes columns for publications such as Babelia and Vogue, and teaches creative writing.

The chosen classic: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Aixa de la Cruz chose the classic Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë as the shared reading. This 19th-century novel about obsessive, destructive love echoes the themes of her own work: desire as a curse, relationships as dependence, and the impossibility of redemption through another person.

Brontë builds a story in which love is not a refuge but a storm. The emotional intensity of Catherine and Heathcliff, their inability to live—and to die—without each other, resonates with Violeta’s experience in Todo empieza con la sangre, where romantic love is also a path to despair.

Listen to the full episode

If you’re interested in stories that explore desire, faith, emotional pain, and ways of finding meaning in a confusing world, this episode is for you. Listen on your favorite platform or on our website (in Spanish):

Listen to the episode with Aixa de la Cruz

Listen to the episode on Spotify.

Watch the episode on YouTube

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If you love literature and enjoy discovering writers’ motivations and thoughts, Secretos a Voces is for you. A new podcast episode every two weeks! And you’ll find more literature on the Secretos a voces Instagram account.

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