Let’s do it the Cuban way: grab a cup of café con leche and sink into this beautiful, heartfelt, and reflective memoir—a journey through Havana, memory, and identity.
The book is a loose travelogue, organized more by themes than by timeline. We move in and out of Havana alongside Barbara’s journey in January 2017, walking with her down memory lanes that trace three generations of her Cuban family in the USA—from the 1950s to her own generation.
Her portrait of Havana is alive on the page: the honest ice cream vendor, the warm-hearted BnB hostess, the music that drifts down the streets, the sunlit beaches, the architecture, and—oh, the food! Even a little dog appears as an unexpected tour guide, adding a touch of whimsy to the streets of the city.
When she asks her parents why they left Cuba and settled in the USA, their answer is almost fairy-tale-like:
“We went on vacation and never went back … one day, Abuelito (grandfather) said this is our home now … and we lived happily ever after … THE END.”
But this sugar-coated story could not sustain Barbara when she met another Cuban American, Sara. Her family, once privileged bankers, were branded enemies of the state under Fidel Castro’s regime, stripped of their home, and barred from the life they once knew.
Her grandfather returned once, threatened at gunpoint and forced to swear never to come back. Her granduncle returned only to find the streets unrecognizable, the home vanished beneath new names. Barbara herself was locked out of the church her ancestors had built, where weddings and confirmations had marked the passage of generations.
So what is Cuban heritage? What does it mean to belong, to inherit, to remember? This is the heart of Barbara’s quest.
I was especially moved by this reflection, when she considers the strength of her Cuban American grandmother and her Irish American grandmother—two roots entwined in her own being:
“Cultures do not have to clash; they can twist together and support the growth and flourishing of a new branch, strong and secure in roots.”
Publication Date: December 2, 2025
Thank you @netgalley and @SheWritesPress for the eARC.