Book Description
From January 1, 1959 (the ascension of Castro to power) to October 22, 1962 (the start of the Missile Crisis), more than a quarter million Cubans sought political refuge in the United States. They were known as the "Golden Exiles" for their collectively unprecedented success, achieved within just one generation.More extraordinary still, many of the Cuban exiles were themselves children of immigrants who settled in Cuba at the beginning of the 20th century. These immigrants worked hard, achieved economic security, and educated their children who then became the professional middle class that was the island's backbone and the source of its prosperity in the 1950's.Mariano's World tells the story of these two migrations through the history of two families from a small town in Cuba. The narrative centers around one man, Mariano Rodriguez Tormo, whose paintings, ink drawings and caricatures--which illustrate the book--reflect his life and times. This is the story of how these adaptable and resilient people kept reinventing themselves to survive, even triumph, in the face of historic events and natural forces that shaped--and sometimes destroyed--their world.This book is a collection of Mariano's art and the history of an American family with roots deep in the soils of Cuba, Spain and the Canary Islands. Sidebars provide world, national and local events that shaped Mariano's life and his descendants' destiny. They speak of the lands and cultures from which family values and traditions evolved.This book is both a homage to the Cuban exiles of Mariano's generation and a legacy to their American descendants.
