28 December 2009 90 MILES TO HAVANA by Enrique Flores-Galbis, Roaring Brook, August 2010, 296p., ISBN: 978-1-59643-168-3
"We were hardly aware of the hardships they beared,
for our time was taken with treasure.
Oh, life was a game, and work was a shame,
And pain was prevented by pleasure.
The world, cold and gray, was so far away
In a distance only money could measure.
But their thoughts were broken by the ringing of revolution."
-- Phil Ochs
"'To really show what a revolution is, you'd have to draw at least three pictures. A before,...a during, and then an after...'
"Bebo picks up five brown eggs in his big hand. 'This is before,' he says and holds them up like a magician about to make them disappear. 'Inside these eggs are all important things that everybody needs: schools, houses, food, and money. For one reason or another a few people have gotten hold of all the eggs and they've got them all locked up.' Then he starts cracking one egg after the other. The slippery yokes slide in, and then chase each other around the white bowl. 'This is during. Things get smashed and cracked, everything gets cut loose, and everybody starts grabbing. That's what we saw last night. It's what's happening now,' he says as he pokes at the five yokes with a fork, and then scrambles them into one big yellow lake.
"'The after is the important part!' he announces and tips the bowl so I can see the bubbling yellow stuff inside. 'You can make a lot of different omelets out of this stuff depending on what you add to it, and how you cook it,' he says as he looks over his shoulder at the kitchen door. 'Some people are going to love this new omelet, and some are going to hate it. But there's one thing I can say for sure, Julian, once you crack those eggs, nothing stays the same.'"
When, more than half a century ago, he was asked to evaluate the Batista regime for the U.S. government, Arthur Schlesinger Jr famously wrote, "The corruption of the Government, the brutality of the police, the regime's indifference to the needs of the people for education, medical care, housing, for social justice and economic justice...is an open invitation to revolution."
I've always found modern Cuban history and politics to be quite complex topics for discussion. And that is one of the reasons why I am so very impressed with 90 MILES TO HAVANA, an outstanding piece of historical fiction through which readers are provided a great introduction through the eyes of a child to what was happening on both sides of that 90 mile divide when, fifty years ago, General Batista was out and Fidel Castro was in charge.
As we learn from Julian's story, when one dictator is replaced by another dictator, some people love the new omelet while others hate it. Julian and his two older brothers are among thousands of children whose parents are so unhappy with what is going on that they choose to send their children off to the United States in a program called Operation Pedro Pan. Author Enrique Flores-Galbis has based the story upon his own participation in the Operation Pedro Pan program and, like his character Julian, Flores-Galbis found himself in a camp full of Cuban children in Florida.
"Finally the tables are starting to turn"
-- Tracy Chapman
Camp Kendal, into which Julian and his older brothers are brought, is overcrowded and under-staffed, providing the perfect breeding ground for a group of young thugs to take charge, practicing extortion and providing favors and more pleasant living conditions to their friends and supporters. Unfortunately for Julian, the bully who has taken control is a teenager who Julian's brothers know and had tangled with back in Havana. The young priest who is theoretically in charge of the camp is blind to what is really going on because he is focused on the results, the fact that there is order and cleanliness; that everything is organized and is getting done. This provides readers a great illustration -- on a small, understandable scale -- of how inequitable non-democratic systems can seem so well-functioning while being built on the pain and suffering of the vast majority.
"I like being around Bebo because he'll explain how to read a compass or how a complicated carburetor works and never once say that I'm too young to understand."
Throughout much of the story, Julian also suffers the fate of many a youngest child: his brothers and parents constantly assume that he is too young to bear responsibility, to be able to understand anything, or to be trusted. And so in following Julian's quest to feel valued -- what Erik Erikson refers to as the Industry vs Inferiority stage -- we come to really appreciate the two significant adult characters who treat Julian differently -- his father's friend Bebo, and Dolores, the cook at Camp Kendal. Thanks to these two adults, Julian comes to believe that he can do anything to which he sets his mind. He then gets the opportunity to put his newfound confidence to work when he gets involved in a scheme to travel by boat to Havana and sneak a small group of Cubans out of the country.
How, fifty years later, to achieve a normalization of relations with Cuba is a significant U.S. foreign policy challenge today. I continue to hope that our extremely-popular Secretary of State will be given an opportunity to try negotiating some history on that diplomatic front.
For young readers, including those with little or no knowledge of Cuba beyond a colored shape on a map, 90 MILES TO HAVANA is an exciting history, adventure, and coming-of-age story that will certainly cause them to listen up and ask questions when they next hear or read mention of that island country that is so near and yet so far away.
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