AWESOMEYvonne

When people hear that Historical Fiction is one of my favorite genres, I often immediately get the reaction that I am a nerd. I am. The reason I enjoy historical fiction actually highlights an issue in the education system. In order to learn, and really learn, you need to be invested. When I pick a book and read it, then I want to learn the history. I do not want to learn it from a text book with no real context. This in itself could be a whole discussion so, moving on.

I recently finished Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. The story is told in two time periods, the present where Marisol, a granddaughter, is mourning her recently passed Cuban grandmother, Elisa, who has asked for her ashes to be spread in Cuba and in 1958 during the rising of Fidel Castro. Elisa was nineteen years old and the daughter of an elite sugar baron in Cuba. Her story went over that last year in Cuba before her family fled to Florida.

The story itself was interesting and what I found the most fascinating was that I realized how little I knew about Cuba. I knew Fidel was a Communist and that he eventually died. I knew the island was closed off while Fidel was in power. I knew his wife had a lot of shoes. I had no idea that Cuba had real problems before Fidel took over. There was a large wealth disparity. There were families that lived in such wealth while the employees that worked at the businesses of those families couldn’t afford to eat. Batista, who was running the country, and his circle made large sums of money especially from the American Mafia which ran almost all of the hotels and casinos in Cuba. There was unrest and when that started the colleges were shut down and the right to protest was removed. Rebels were detained and killed without trial. Violence started and spread.

What was so interesting to me is how much the USA opposed the one government and not the other while things were bad for both governments. I am not suggesting Communism is good. In both circumstances, there were rich, it was just a change in which group of people was rich. Both saw most of the people in poverty with no way out. Both killed people for opposing them. It is always interesting to see where the line drawn.