Where Are They Going?

Book excerpt: Where They Are Going narrates the comings and goings of five Cubans who represent some of the great cultural diversity making up cubanía (the essence of being Cuban), with ancestral ties to five different parts of the world. It is an alternative account to the stereotypical storyline about Cuba we often hear in the US media, that of refugees fleeing a dictatorship in search of a promised land. The largely untold story is that of people who find promise in their own patria, their homeland, despite the challenging circumstances they find there. Here you will find five Cubans who do not appear to feel “trapped” in tyranny; each of them has traveled the world and each made the decision to go back to their Cuban homes. The book not only tells their stories, but also narrates the imagined backstories of those ancestors who left their own homelands to come and contribute to the rich culture and resilient spirit that defines what it means to be Cuban. Listen to their stories and you might find yourself pulled away from your own patria, attracted to a land and a life that could prove to be well worth whatever challenges it poses.