Mar 04, 2009, 07:40 AM
Author returns to Cuba to excavate 'Ruins'
Heather Lee Schroeder
Special to the Capital Times
March 3, 2009
-
Author Achy (pronounced AH-chee) Obejas was born in Cuba in 1956 and escaped with her family to the United States at age 6. Her family settled in Indiana and she didn't return to her native country until 33 years later, to attend a conference.
Not long after, she fell in love with a Cuban citizen. Obejas and her significant other traveled back and forth between the U.S. and Cuba over the years, using cultural exchange programs, research projects and other loopholes to spend time together.
Unlike most Americans, for whom travel to Cuba is forbidden, Obejas was able to spend six uninterrupted months at a time living in Cuba, experiencing the day-to-day life of the country's citizens. This time helped shape Obejas newly released novel "Ruins."
"Living in Cuba was what gave me the time to get to know people and to have conversations with people and to have insight into people," Obejas said. "I lived as close as you can to being a Cuban without being a Cuban."
Set in the early 1990s, "Ruins" explores the period right after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the Cuban government encouraged citizens to leave the country. In previous exoduses, Obejas said, most of the people leaving Cuba had ideological differences with the government or were considered undesirable in some way.
In 1994, many, if not most, of the people who left did so because of financial hardship. The nation's economy was catastrophically broken, and Cubans were experiencing real need. Young, educated people were unable to practice their professions, and although Cuba did not have a famine, its citizens experienced hunger and scarcity in the 1990s, Obejas said.
"The refugees were mostly young people, pure products of the revolution," she said. "These were people who had been born during the revolution. These were people who had been educated by the revolution and who really felt betrayed by the promise of the revolution."
Using the story of an ideologically minded Cuban named Usnavy, Obejas explores a period of history that many Cuban authors have written about, but that few Cuban-American writers have tackled. Usnavy (named by his mother after the gigantic boats anchored in Guantanamo Bay), experiences a disconnection between his ideology and the reality of his life. His wife has lost her job. His daughter wants to leave the country, and everything Usnavy took for granted has been turned topsy-turvy.
As Usnavy grapples with his sense of purpose, his country shifts on its axis. Sparely written and fast-moving in its style, "Ruins" has already garnered comparisons to Ernest Hemingway's writing -- a comparison Obejas welcomes. In fact, the novel had its start at least partly from Hemingway's most famous piece of writing.
While living in Cuba, Obejas met Gregorio Fuentes, the man upon whom Hemingway based Santiago, the title character in "The Old Man and the Sea." Fuentes, who had outlived Hemingway by many years, made a living posing for tourists.
"I never had much of a conversation with him," Obejas said. "He was practically mummified and really not lucid. It saddened me that his dignity had to be put aside to earn a few dollars. His entire family depended on his humiliation."
Meeting Fuentes prompted Obejas to revisit "The Old Man and the Sea." Rereading it after spending time living in Cuba gave her a different take on the story. "It was shocking to reread it," she said. "First, to discover what a beautiful piece it is and then to discover how he had rendered Cuba and Cubans."
She was struck by how Hemingway, who had spent 30 years living in Cuba, maintained a distance from his adopted country. She also found Santiago's obsession with a giant marlin familiar. Cubans, Obejas said, often place hope in objects that they believe will save them or solve their problems.
"People will hold up a dusty copy of a book that they think is valuable," she said. "But things of real value seem to go unheeded."
"Ruins" also took shape from the many small encounters Obejas had while living in Cuba -- best summed up, she said, in her experience at the Museum of the Revolution. This historic repository is housed in the former Presidential Palace, an opulent building decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the American artist and designer best known for his stained-glass windows and lamps.
While walking through the building, Obejas couldn't quite process the weirdness of the museum objects, such as Che Guevara's asthma inhaler and the bloody shirts of revolutionaries. She said the contrast between the luxury of the palace's exuberant past and the dreary relics placed inside struck a chord for her.
She started writing a short story about a man who has been disillusioned by the revolution's failed promises but who wants to remain true to his ideological purpose. The story evolved into "Ruins."
At all times while living in Cuba, Obejas had access to a passport and American dollars, two pieces of her safety net that allowed her to leave the country if she chose. Yet, she wasn't living in a hotel as most foreign visitors do. She lived with her girlfriend's family, shopped with ration cards, bought goods illegally, and spoke with a Cuban accent.
The tales she heard about living in Cuba provided details for "Ruins," such as Usnavy's wife cutting up wool blankets boiled in broth and selling them as meat. Obejas heard many versions of that story, and whether exaggerated or not, they struck at the heart of the desperation Cubans felt and that Obejas wanted to capture in her novel.
"It was not a touristic experience," Obejas said. "The book wouldn't have been possible without the intimacy provided by having a day-to-day life in Cuba."
http://77square.com/arts/books/story_441343
Heather Lee Schroeder
Special to the Capital Times
March 3, 2009
-
Author Achy (pronounced AH-chee) Obejas was born in Cuba in 1956 and escaped with her family to the United States at age 6. Her family settled in Indiana and she didn't return to her native country until 33 years later, to attend a conference.
Not long after, she fell in love with a Cuban citizen. Obejas and her significant other traveled back and forth between the U.S. and Cuba over the years, using cultural exchange programs, research projects and other loopholes to spend time together.
Unlike most Americans, for whom travel to Cuba is forbidden, Obejas was able to spend six uninterrupted months at a time living in Cuba, experiencing the day-to-day life of the country's citizens. This time helped shape Obejas newly released novel "Ruins."
"Living in Cuba was what gave me the time to get to know people and to have conversations with people and to have insight into people," Obejas said. "I lived as close as you can to being a Cuban without being a Cuban."
Set in the early 1990s, "Ruins" explores the period right after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the Cuban government encouraged citizens to leave the country. In previous exoduses, Obejas said, most of the people leaving Cuba had ideological differences with the government or were considered undesirable in some way.
In 1994, many, if not most, of the people who left did so because of financial hardship. The nation's economy was catastrophically broken, and Cubans were experiencing real need. Young, educated people were unable to practice their professions, and although Cuba did not have a famine, its citizens experienced hunger and scarcity in the 1990s, Obejas said.
"The refugees were mostly young people, pure products of the revolution," she said. "These were people who had been born during the revolution. These were people who had been educated by the revolution and who really felt betrayed by the promise of the revolution."
Using the story of an ideologically minded Cuban named Usnavy, Obejas explores a period of history that many Cuban authors have written about, but that few Cuban-American writers have tackled. Usnavy (named by his mother after the gigantic boats anchored in Guantanamo Bay), experiences a disconnection between his ideology and the reality of his life. His wife has lost her job. His daughter wants to leave the country, and everything Usnavy took for granted has been turned topsy-turvy.
As Usnavy grapples with his sense of purpose, his country shifts on its axis. Sparely written and fast-moving in its style, "Ruins" has already garnered comparisons to Ernest Hemingway's writing -- a comparison Obejas welcomes. In fact, the novel had its start at least partly from Hemingway's most famous piece of writing.
While living in Cuba, Obejas met Gregorio Fuentes, the man upon whom Hemingway based Santiago, the title character in "The Old Man and the Sea." Fuentes, who had outlived Hemingway by many years, made a living posing for tourists.
"I never had much of a conversation with him," Obejas said. "He was practically mummified and really not lucid. It saddened me that his dignity had to be put aside to earn a few dollars. His entire family depended on his humiliation."
Meeting Fuentes prompted Obejas to revisit "The Old Man and the Sea." Rereading it after spending time living in Cuba gave her a different take on the story. "It was shocking to reread it," she said. "First, to discover what a beautiful piece it is and then to discover how he had rendered Cuba and Cubans."
She was struck by how Hemingway, who had spent 30 years living in Cuba, maintained a distance from his adopted country. She also found Santiago's obsession with a giant marlin familiar. Cubans, Obejas said, often place hope in objects that they believe will save them or solve their problems.
"People will hold up a dusty copy of a book that they think is valuable," she said. "But things of real value seem to go unheeded."
"Ruins" also took shape from the many small encounters Obejas had while living in Cuba -- best summed up, she said, in her experience at the Museum of the Revolution. This historic repository is housed in the former Presidential Palace, an opulent building decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the American artist and designer best known for his stained-glass windows and lamps.
While walking through the building, Obejas couldn't quite process the weirdness of the museum objects, such as Che Guevara's asthma inhaler and the bloody shirts of revolutionaries. She said the contrast between the luxury of the palace's exuberant past and the dreary relics placed inside struck a chord for her.
She started writing a short story about a man who has been disillusioned by the revolution's failed promises but who wants to remain true to his ideological purpose. The story evolved into "Ruins."
At all times while living in Cuba, Obejas had access to a passport and American dollars, two pieces of her safety net that allowed her to leave the country if she chose. Yet, she wasn't living in a hotel as most foreign visitors do. She lived with her girlfriend's family, shopped with ration cards, bought goods illegally, and spoke with a Cuban accent.
The tales she heard about living in Cuba provided details for "Ruins," such as Usnavy's wife cutting up wool blankets boiled in broth and selling them as meat. Obejas heard many versions of that story, and whether exaggerated or not, they struck at the heart of the desperation Cubans felt and that Obejas wanted to capture in her novel.
"It was not a touristic experience," Obejas said. "The book wouldn't have been possible without the intimacy provided by having a day-to-day life in Cuba."
http://77square.com/arts/books/story_441343