Dice un refrán original y muy español que "lo escrito, escrito queda; las palabras, el viento se las lleva". He aquí que nace así mi afán y deseo de narrarles esta historia real y verdadera para todos los lectores. Es mi vida relatada con sus necesidades, prohibiciones, retención; llena de peligros, amistad, amor, humildad y solidaridad. Separada de mis hijos y mis seres queridos. Os invita a leer esta refugiada cubana que hoy vive en Miami. El haber logrado hacer esta novela de fácil lectura para todos, es un buen ejemplo de que "cuando se quiere, se puede". Me regocija, enorgullece y se agigantan cada vez más a mis rasgos, principios e ideas para fortalecerme cada día.

Presents a glimpse into four centuries of Cubans in America, from the sixteenth century to the present day, and profiles such noted Cubans as Oscar Hijuelos, Gloria Estefan, and Jeff Bezos.

In 1989, the world watched as the Berlin Wall tumbled down, and then looked on as the entire Iron Curtain shook itself to pieces, freeing Eastern Europe after decades of Soviet domination. But how many observers noticed as the swells and shockwaves from those events slowly crossed the Atlantic Ocean to roil the waters of the Caribbean and break upon the shores of Cuba? In Adrift: The Cuban Raft People , Alfredo Fernández surveys the turbulence produced an entire hemisphere away by the collapse of the USSR, and concludes that, ironically, the greatest collateral damage has been inflicted not on the regime of Fidel Castro but rather upon the men, women, and children seeking to flee his dictatorship. For although U.S. immigration policy changed soon after, Castros grip on the Cuban people has remained unyielding, even as extraordinary economic crises have wracked the island. As a result, countless refugees seeking freedom have disappeared without a trace into the churning waters of the Florida Straits. And many of those rescued in international waters by U.S. naval vessels have simply been turned back over to the Cuban authorities. Focusing especially on the years 1994 through 1996, by which time the magnitude of the post-Soviet changes in Cuba had become fully apparent, Fernández presents a compelling international gallery of survivors, victims, traitors, rogues, and heroes. From the infamous destruction of two unarmed private planes (sponsored by the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue) by Cuban MIGs in February 1996, to an afterward on the media-driven frenzy over five-year-old Elián González, found alone in an inner-tube two miles off Fort Lauderdale in November 1999, this is the powerful, true saga of two nations in conflict and the hapless people adrift between their shores. Fernándezs compelling account captures the stories of the Cuban boat people, which are particularly relevant in light of the recent Elián González case. The work transcends purely ethnic interest in addressing a political topic of broad national impact.

There was a time in Miami when it seemed impossible to go through a week without news coverage of the men, women and children escaping Cuba and being pulled off of makeshift rafts in the middle of the Florida Straits. One out of four did not survive the dangerous journey; the others barely hung on with little food and water. Most of the lucky ones were saved by a group of volunteers who called themselves Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR). Seagull One is the never-before-told story of the men and women representing nineteen nationalities who came together to fly in rickety Cessnas over the Florida Straits to search for rafters fleeing Communist Cuba. It is a fascinating account of how José Basulto, a Cuban exile and Bay of Pigs veteran, founded BTTR with the humanitarian mission of saving the lives of the desperate souls willing to brave the ocean in pursuit of freedom. The group’s tactics were sometimes controversial, including protests against both the Cuban and U.S. governments, yet the organization managed to save over 4,200 people they would seldom, if ever, meet. Seagull One also records the infiltration of two spies, one who was a double agent working for the FBI. Together these two volunteers collaborated with the Castro government in planning the shoot down over international waters of two unarmed Cessnas flying a humanitarian mission on February 24, 1996. The cold-blooded murder of four innocent men (three American citizens and one legal resident) led to significant changes in U.S.-Cuba relations. Over one hundred people were interviewed for Seagull One. Their stories come to life in this nonfiction narrative that reads like a novel.

From America’s number one Cuba reporter, PEN award–winning investigative journalist Ann Louise Bardach, comes the big book on Cuba we’ve all been waiting for. An incisive and spirited portrait of the twentieth century’s wiliest political survivor and his fiefdom, Cuba Confidential is the gripping story of the shattered families and warring personalities that lie at the heart of the forty-three-year standoff between Miami and Havana. Famous to many Americans for her cover stories and media appearances, Ann Louise Bardach has been covering Cuba for a decade. She’s talked to the crooks, spooks and politicians who have made history, and to their hired assassins and confidants. Based on exclusive interviews with Fidel Castro, his sister Juanita, his former brother-in-law Rafael Díaz-Balart, the family of Elián González, the friends and family of the legendary American fugitive Robert Vesco, the intrepid terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and the inner circles of Jeb Bush and the late exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa, Cuba Confidential exposes the hardball take-no-prisoners tactics of the Cuban exile leadership, and its manipulation and exploitation by ten American presidents. Bardach homes in on Fidel Castro and his cronies, taking us closer than we’ve ever been—and on the militant exiles who have devoted their lives, with CIA connivance, to trying to eliminate him. From Calle Ocho to Juan Miguel González’s kitchen table in Cárdenas, from Guantánamo Bay to Union City to Washington, D.C., Ann Louise Bardach serves up an unforgettable portrait of Cuba and its exiles.