By Heart/de Memoria

Book excerpt: In this moving account of the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath, eleven women who lived through it as children or young adults recall the events of the last forty years. In Torres's words, This book, which began in Miami, looking toward the island, ends on the island as it gazes toward the exile community. These poets, artists and scholars represent each post-revolution exile generation. Some left Cuba in the Peter Pan airlift, some left afterward, some never left at all. Others - like the editor - left as children only to return and leave again, disillusioned with both the exile community and with Castro's island. Together they testify to the powerful intersections of memory, politics, nation, and exile.