As the twentieth century recedes additional into the rearview mirror, with fewer and fewer individuals round to recollect Cuba earlier than Castro, Song for Olivia, a brand new novel by native author Maruchi Mendez, is a touching time capsule of how fleeing the island affected one South Florida household.
The ebook started as Mendez tried to jot down her older sister’s recollections.
“I began this ebook 9 years in the past with my sister [Olga del Valle]Â with conversations by which I’d take notes of each element,” Mendez tells New Times. “For causes one can find out once you learn the ebook, she requested that I not publish this ebook so long as she was alive.”
Because of sensitivities to her sister’s reminiscence and so as to add some drama to the story, Song for Olivia was revealed as “a novel based mostly on a real story” fairly than a memoir. Still, the ebook pays nice consideration to the main points of Miami in 1959, the place the household finds themselves. The father goes from a white-collar authorities employee in Cuba to washing dishes at Pizza Palace, whereas the titular Olivia has to drop out of highschool to work at Eagle Army Navy Clothing Stores. They spend their uncommon off days at Key Biscayne’s Crandon Park, eager for their native seashores.
“Lately, there was plenty of dialogue of the Cuban privilege. Though some characters and occasions are fiction, it is a firsthand account negating that assertion.” Mendez says. “In stark distinction to our lifetime of abundance in Cuba, the truth that awaited us right here was so despairing that [in the book] I needed to embellish life within the U.S. to take care of some normalcy. My sisters and I actually arrived with empty suitcases, able to work and stuffed with gratitude for this nation.”
Mendez’s proxy, Mari, acts because the narrator. The ebook begins with Mari speaking primarily about her fast household. Midway by way of, the story pivots towards the romance between her older sister, Olivia, and her beau, Tony. Tony was based mostly on Manuel “Chi Chi” del Valle, Mendez’s brother-in-law, who spent 17 years in a Cuban jail after being accused of spreading dissent in Cuba on CIA-sponsored missions.
Mendez says a number of the analysis carried out for the ebook included interviews with Manuel’s coworkers within the CIA. She additionally learn a number of books written by native and out-of-state authors that touched on the Cuban diaspora and Pedro Pan exodus. “The ebook Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire is one among many,” she provides. “Although the Cuban exodus didn’t happen over many a long time, everybody who lived it has a really completely different and poignant story to share with the world.”
The up to date depictions of the Cuba she was pressured to go away behind does not nonetheless properly Mendez.
“Unfortunately, the world has historically romanticized Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and the Cuban revolution,” she says. “Some documentaries have left a bitter style in my mouth. Those which have been victims of their atrocities inform a unique story. The horrors of the Cuban jails are actually beginning to emerge by way of Lilo Villaplana’s Plantados and this yr’s film Plantadas, which premiered on the Miami International Film Festival. Netflix’s new docuseries, Cuba Libre, reframes and weaves Cuba’s sophisticated historical past making an attempt to supply an unbiased outcome. Also, the 2013 movie Cubamerican, starring Andy Garcia and Steven Bauer, struck a chord with me. I considered my father rather a lot.”
She will assume fondly of her departed father and the remainder of her household who cannot make the launch occasion for her ebook on April 20 at Books & Books.
“Lots of people that knew my sister and her story will certainly be there, so I feel there will probably be a big attendance. I simply wish to pay homage to her and my mother and father.”
 Â
An Evening with Maruchi Mendez. 7Â p.m. Thursday, April 20, at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 305-442-4408; booksandbooks.com. Admission is free.