Eduardo F. Calcines was a child of Fidel Castro’s Cuba; he was just three years old when Castro came to power in January 1959. After that, everything changed for his family and his country. When he was ten, his family applied for an exit visa to emigrate to America and he was ridiculed by his schoolmates and even his teachers for being a traitor to his country. But even worse, his father was sent to an agricultural reform camp to do hard labor as punishment for daring to want to leave Cuba. During the years to come, as he grew up in Glorytown, a neighborhood in the city of Cienfuegos, Eduardo hoped with all his might that their exit visa would be granted before he turned fifteen, the age at which he would be drafted into the army. In this absorbing memoir, by turns humorous and heartbreaking, Eduardo Calcines recounts his boyhood and chronicles the conditions that led him to wish above all else to leave behind his beloved extended family and his home for a chance at a better future.
Featured in Volume I, Issue 4 of WOW Review.
- ISBN: 9780374343941
- Author: Calcines, Eduardo F.
- Published: 2009, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
- Themes: Family, immigration, oppression, Politics, Poverty, power
- Descriptors: Caribbean, Cuba, Nonfiction, Young Adult (ages 14-18)
- No. of pages: 240
As I started to read Leaving Glorytown I was so disheartened and horrified by the accounts from Calcines during the Revolution. I could not believe that these people were so powerless in almost every action they made. What made me even more dismayed was that I never really knew as much about what really happened before this book and I still do not know much about what is happening there. I knew general details about the Cuban Revolution but never truly knew what these people were going through. In school I recall hearing about the Bay of Pigs but still did not grasp the extent to which these people were being treated. It is unbelievable that I only recall a tiny portion of information about the Cuban Revolution. The author does a tremendous job portraying his story and accurately recalling many feelings and memories from his boyhood. The reader may not necessarily relate to what it felt like to be in such oppression but one can definitely have strong feelings toward what is occurring in Cuba and places where there is little freedom.
“I was a lucky kid, in the best way a kid can be lucky: I was loved.” (Eduardo)
It is for this reason that Eduardo Calcines and his family survive Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. In his memoir Leaving Glorytown: One Boy’s Struggle Under Castro, Eduardo writes of how the Revolution changed his life forever. Until he was three years old, Eduardo lived an idyllic existence with plenty of love, food, and freedom. Almost overnight, his world flipped into one he could not recognize and accept. Ration books, long lines for tinned Russian horsemeat, forced labor camps and killing courts were now his reality. Religion was outlawed. Neighbors and even family could turn into informants for the government. The beginning of the Revolution was the end of Eduardo’s childhood.
The erosion began once Castro came into power. When the army snatches his father in the middle of the night and taken to a forced labor camp, the wearing away of Eduardo’s youth is complete. At age ten, he is now the man of the house. Notions of manhood and male identity developed at an early age for Eduardo. His father, abuelo, and Tio William were his male role models. He was learning how to be a man by listening to them, watching how they loved their families and how they dealt with the onslaught of sweeping ideological and political change.
The bulk of the book takes place during the time Eduardo is waiting for a telegram to arrive from the government. This critical piece of paper is permission to immigrate to the United States. Since exit visas are given randomly through a lottery, no one knows when or if they will leave. Eduardo’s anxiety grows as the waiting stretches into weeks, months, even years. If the visa is not granted by the time Eduardo is 14 and half years old, he will be drafted into the army and not be allowed to leave. The draft looms like an unholy specter. Therefore, when he begins to contemplate taking his chances in the 90 miles of open water between Cuba and Florida in a stolen boat, he is no different from the number of people who dare think to do such a thing. Life had become so dire and bleak that sometimes desperate and irrational plans of escape were considered and sometimes executed, including suicide.
Eduardo’s homeland and Cuban identity are being erased, destroyed and replaced with a world that bears no resemblance to what they knew before. When his father takes the bold step to apply for an exit visit, this desire to protect the family opens them up for public scorn and derision. Teachers single Eduardo out in class for rejecting the tenets of Communism and the glorious revolution. His friendships become strained as they are tested by politics and peer pressure. Cynicism and distrust are amped up.
However, in the face of hopelessness, Eduardo does not give up hope. He is buoyed by the wisdom of his family specifically his parents and grandparents. Leaving Glorytown is ripe with vivid images of a beautiful island paradise turned into a physical and psychological prison. Yet in the muck, like a Lotus flower, Eduardo grows and becomes a man of integrity and self-respect.
I was astonished and intrigued by the memoir Leaving Glorytown. Never have I heard of a Cuban refugees perspective on life in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution. There is so much history told throughout Eduardo’s story which makes the story line even more engaging. I agree with David’s comment about a sequel would be a nice continuation of Eduardo’s story. Although Eduardo’s family suffered from many hardships,I cant imagine Eduardo’s life making a complete 180 once in the U.S. It isn’t exactly easy moving to a new country, especially with no place to live, no money and possessions. All the family has is each other.
I would suggest this book for upper elementary/middle school students.
A very poignant tale is told of a boyhood lived out under the Castro dictatorship. I found this book to be very well-written and moving. The chapters are well-connected up until the inevitable exit for Florida. This is written in a memoir style with family photos as an opener. The strong Latin family ties that are endlessly unbreakable weather the worst of times for this Cuban family. The book could be easily translated into a movie script. Calcine’s English is very good and there isn’t hardly a trace of Spanish syntax undertones in the writing. Stereotypical images are evoked of Cuba from cigars to dominoes, but the main focus of the book is the perceptions and perspectives of a young Cuban boy into adolescence and the trials and tribulations of his family. There are even many comic moments which bring back that unbeatable Latino spirit at the most horrific of moments. I highly recommend this book, and not because I have an M.A. in Latin-American literature. It is a very easy read with universal themes running through it; One of them being the survival of the human spirit. The storyline ends with a new life in Florida. What happens then? A sequel could be brought to life as a continuation. Young boys may particularly enjoy this book or identify with it, but also be shocked and amazed at how much more difficult life is like in the greater world outside of the U.S. borders. Still, the book maintains a universal appeal.
Eduardo Calcines begins the introduction of his book Leaving Glorytown: One Boy’s Struggle Under Castro with these lines: “I was a child of Communism. This means I was raised in two worlds—one a world of ideas, the other the real world.” So begins 221 pages of memories of these worlds. Memories of his large, loving extended family; the hardships, poverty and traumas endured throughout his youth; and his hatred of Communism and Castro and the political propoganda of 1960s Cuba.
His father and grandfather instilled in Eduardo a pride in and allegiance to “God, country and family.” Family, and relationships with friends, take precedence in this book and are portrayed simply, yet vividly. “If I needed an example of how to behave in difficult times, I didn’t have to look any further than my own family,” he writes. Vignettes of courage, resourcefulness, and commitment follow that illustrate his respect, admiration, and appreciation of the humble, strong, loving adults central to his life.
As Eduardo grows, so do the difficult, harsh realities of day-to-day existence under what he considers an incompetent, repressive regime that steals everything away from him and his people. He is counseled by his grandparents that “Anything can happen. Even those things you may have given up on.” In many ways, this memoir
is a testament that Eduardo, even after leaving Cuba at age 14 and becoming an American, has never given up on his dream for Cuba’s freedom and his desire to return to visit his beloved homeland.
I was struck by the thoughtfulness of Eduardo Calcinas’recollections in all the factors influencing a young man literally trying to grow up. (age 8-14)Eduar was not only taxed with the traditional issues of puberty; trying to identify himself within his family, his friends, and his culture, but also during the extermination of the Cuban culture into a Communist culture. The audience is transported to a land where we literally become actors with the family as we learn when to keep secrets, whisper in our homes and know which mask to put on when we walk in the public eye. What happens when our masquerade mask is ripped off before the dance is over? Well, the reader is holding their breath throughout until the end.
The book Leaving Glorytown was a deeply moving and compelling book to read. The Calcines family faced great hardships, but never lost their faith and hope for freedom. They remained true to their beliefs, never letting the communist party take control of their lives completely. Eduardo Calcines describes an amazing struggle he faced to gain his freedom. Eduardo’s love for his family and the wisdom of his grandparents moved me to tears. Stories like his should be heard. As Americans, we should never forget how lucky we are to have freedom.
I was moved with compassion to read about one family who wanted to exit Cuba because of the Revolution’s ideals by using intimidation through an intercom of the “voice” of Fidel Castro throughout the city, the people were not feed adequatly, also the truth was not revealed about their future, and the use of re-educating tactics in labor camps that were less than human.The Calines family had a strong belief in God, family, and country.It was their faith that helped them endure the ridicule and hardships from the militants,neighbors and teachers because they wanted to move to the United States of America. I became emotional when I read that they were granted permission to get on-board the airplane to freedom. The family knew they would face challenges but were willing to do so.