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Copyright
2005 Reed Business Information, US, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Library Journal Reviews - May
1, 2005
SECTION: REVIEWS; Social Sciences; Pg. 97
Finding Mañana: A Memoir of Cuban Exodus
Tania Barnes
In May 1980, at aged 16, Ojito and her family-mother Mirta, father Orestes, and sister Mabel-found themselves among the thousands of other Cuban refugees, tired, half starved, and hopeful, trying to cross the Florida Strait and reach Miami in what became known as the Mariel boatlift. Here she pieces together the events-both personal and political-that brought her family and so many others like it out of a Cuba whose government they could no longer tolerate. In alter-nating chapters, we see Ojito in Cuba-where she is ridiculed by a zealous teacher for believing in God and passed over for a scholarship because of her parents' lack of revolutionary fervor-and meet the colorful cast of characters, from Cuban exiles to a Vietnam vet, who set the emigration in motion and carry it through. Although occasionally the narrative jumps can be disorienting, jour-nalist Ojito (a Pulitzer Prize winner for her contribution to the New York Times series "How Race Is Lived in America") manages to weave the disparate threads of the story into a cohesive whole. What results is a rich, but nuanced picture of life in Cuba under Castro and the intimately personal nature of politics. Recommended for public libraries and academic libraries supporting journalism or cul-tural studies programs.-Tania Barnes, Library Journal
Ojito, Mirta. Finding
Mañana: A Memoir of Cuban Exodus. Penguin Pr: Penguin Putnam 2005.
c.320p. ISBN 1-59420-041-6 . $24.95. AUTOBIOG
LOAD-DATE: April 28, 2005
