THE MANGO CHRONICLE

González-Rothi recalls growing up in Cuba in the 1950s and 1960s under the rule of Fidel Castro and the new life he began when his family moved to the United States in this memoir.

The author was born and raised in Matanzas, Cuba, during politically turbulent times, but he largely enjoyed a happy childhood surrounded by loving family. Inevitably, he encountered some youthful challenges—neighborhood bully Helio, a “habitual brawler,” terrorized him until one day, pushed to his limits, González-Rothi hurled a chunk of marble at him, a weapon supplied (with instructions) by his Uncle Yayo. Helio fell to the ground, “limp like an abandoned marionette,” and was conveyed to a hospital—the touching and comically entertaining story is typical of the author’s thoughtful remembrances. While his memoir mostly avoids discussing the political trials Cuba suffered during those years, the author does vividly recall the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the spectacle of the defeated insurgents being displayed in the streets by the military. Two years later, the author’s family left for Mexico City and then moved to the United States. González-Rothi’s stories, related in a causally anecdotal style, are emotionally poignant and deeply insightful. He loved Cuba profoundly and resented heaving to abandon it for the squalid streets of New Jersey and all the ethnic discrimination his new home had to offer; in heartrending terms, he describes how, as an adult long-acclimated to life in the United States, he prefers to recollect his “wonderful childhood.” “By now it had become much easier to remember my childhood as simple, with the Matanzas I knew as a child, minus all the political intrigue, which despite efforts to not pay mind to it, was impossible at times to ignore. I cultivated the practice of remembering to forget, thus allowing myself a safe harbor of denial.” This is a gripping autobiography and an affecting remembrance of a Cuba few get to see.

A captivating memoir and a startlingly edifying portrait of Cuba.