Cuban-American author Christina Diaz Gonzalez elaborates upon her parents' experience as child refugees from Castro's Cuba in her early teen historical novel The Red Umbrella (Alfred A Knopf, 2010). Readers experience the Cuban communist revolution and Operation Pedro Pan, which relocated Cuban children to the United States, through the eyes of feisty fourteen-year-old Lucia.
Summary of Christina Diaz Gonzalez' The Red Umbrella
Lucia Álvarez dreams of celebrating her quinceañera, or 15th birthday party, with her family and friends. Yet Castro’s Communist revolution is turning the world upside down for Lucia and everyone else in Cuba.
As Lucia’s banker-father comes under army surveillance and her best friend Ivette joins the Jovenes, the Castro youth core, Lucia's life begins to change.
At first Lucia is angry at her parents for their paranoia and secrecy in defying the revolution. She wants to hang out with her friends, not stay locked up at home. When Lucia wanders down the wrong street and witnesses a horrific event, she realizes her parents may be right about Castro’s regime after all.
Then Lucia’s parents make a heartbreaking decision. They sell Mamá’s last piece of jewelry and bribe government officials to get Lucia and her kid brother Frankie out of Cuba. After a brief stay in a Catholic youth camp near Miami, Lucia and Frankie find themselves in small town Nebraska, surrounded by an ocean of corn and a loving, if slightly reticent, farming community.
Lucia enters high school and embraces American music and football, yet she yearns for home and the reunification of her family. As she waits for Mamá and Papá to escape Castro’s Cuba, the revolution continues to rage in her homeland and in her heart.
Review of The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
The image of the red umbrella has two meanings in the novel. It describes the sheltered world Castro’s forcing upon Cuba with his communist agenda. But for Lucia, the red umbrella becomes a symbol of hope after Mamá explains that Castro can’t take away the color red or the people’s spirit.
This spirit of pragmatic hopefulness permeates the novel. Despite the horrors of Castro’s takeover, brought to life for readers by contemporary newspaper headlines from the early 1960s at the beginning of every chapter, Lucia refuses to let her heart die. She chooses life and embraces the little things in life, whether it’s learning to feed chickens, apply lipstick, or laugh at little brother Frankie’s constant deviance.
The Red Umbrella is a supportive read for teens struggling with how they fit into an ever-changing world. It also works well as a cross-over novel for adults interested in the history and culture of Cuba as well as an inside view of the emotional struggle that Latino-Americans and other immigrant peoples face as they leave their native land and adjust to American culture and values.
About Author Christina Diaz Gonzalez
Christina Diaz Gonzalez, a former lawyer turned writer, is the child of two Cuban parents who came to the U.S. as part of the Pedro Pan Movement to escape Castro’s oppressive regime. According to the author’s website, she has a huge Cuban-American family who is very supportive of her writing as well as The Red Umbrella. The Red Umbrella is Gonzalez’s first novel. Her second novel A Thunderous Whisper is set in Guernica during the Spanish Civil War and out in 2012.
For other teen reads that delve into world cultures, readers may enjoy Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor or the Tiger's Curse series by Collen Houck.
Source:
Gonzalez, Christian Diaz. The Red Umbrella. Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-375-86190-1
Melissa Roberts - A trained hospital chaplain, Melissa is a freelance writer, teacher, retreat leader, and spiritual director.
