Infinite refuge / by Virgil Suárez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Suárez, Virgil, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Suárez, Virgil, 1962-.

Suárez, Virgil.

Authors, American--20th century--Biography.

Authors, American.

Families.

Suárez, Virgil, 1962---Family.

Cuban Americans--Biography.

Cuban Americans.

Cuban American families.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

ix, 130 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Houston, Tex. : Arte Público Press, [2002]

Summary:

"So much left behind. Our house. Our family. Our lives together," Virgil Suarez writes in his memoir of life as a Cuban refugee. Beginning with the saga of the balseros that unfolds before Suarez's eyes, when, at his mother's insistence, he turns on the TV and witnesses a confrontation between the Coast Guard and the Cuban rafters, Suarez remembers family and friends leaving Cuba and ties these through verse and prose to his own experience of exile. Rather than decry the politics of persecution under a dictatorship or celebrate the freedoms enjoyed in the United States, Suarez instead brings to life his memories on the page. Suarez writes, "Those old ghosts of places we knew, lived in-moments we survived-those are the things I'm afraid of." But those old ghosts populate his stories: the shadows of his extended family standing on the other side of the glass at the departure gate in the airport, the next-door neighbor of his childhood with whom he plays firing squad, his mother's last wish to return to Cuba, and his promise to his father not to return until change comes to Cuba. Suarez's poignant tales of family disintegration, culture shock, and separation are matched only by his examples of people struggling for the strength to live their modest lives and to preserve their memories in the face of the challenges of the new society around them. He sees in the raft people, in the dissidents, in the newly minted American citizens the same creative will that launched his own career as a writer.

Contents:

Balsero Dreams 1

Gusano at the Hatuey Brewery 16

Epidemic 19

Fantomas, Master of Disguise 21

Hilario, El carretero del barrio, Arroyo Naranjo, Cuba, circa 1969 23

The Delgados's Son 27

Initiation 36

Blown 43

Conduit 49

Grandmother's Instructions 51

Corners 52

Jinetera Currency 63

Grease 64

Chosen 69

Mariposas Negras: My Mother's Return to Cuba 79

The Day the Police Took My Father Away 81

Ricochet 83

The Policeman's Story 91

Mangos 93

Cosas Sinatra 110

Tin Can & Fruit Crate Art, or How My Grandmother Spent Her Final Days 112

The Monkey Story 114

The Year the Moscow Circus Came to Havana 116

Water Songs 118

Psalm of the Boy Cartographer 128.

ISBN:

1558853480

OCLC:

49664445