Next Year in Cuba: A Cubano's Coming-of-age in America (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like other members of the "one-and-a-half" generation?Cuban exiles who came to the U.S. as children?the author sees the Christmas Eve toast "Next year in Cuba" as a "magical, monotonous mantra" pulling at his divided loyalties. Now a professor of Spanish at Duke University, Perez Firmat sensitively probes his dual identity, sketching Little Havana in Miami and recounting his family heritage, with an ear enriched by both his languages. His people were upper-class gusanos (worms), the name the Castro regime gives its opponents. He opines that the move to Miami cost him his father, who lost his business and his spirit, although his mother feels exile saved her marriage. Suffocating family loyalties have tensed the author and his two brothers against one another; now, he observes, "our best chance to have a real family is to start one." Thus the author divorced his Cuban wife, and Mary Anne, his second wife, became his first americana. Now in middle age, he has become more rooted in the U.S. even as he finds a sense of Cuban identity. Finally, he writes, the trip to Miami "still feels like regreso [return] but no longer like regression." Illustrations.
- but no longer like regression." Illustrations.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This is a touching, personal account of a young Cuban's departure from his native country and his assimilation of American culture and values, including marriage to an American, raising an American family, teaching at an American university, and, in general, accepting things American while longing for a greater knowledge of things Cuban and how his Cuban ancestry helped to define his American existence. Perez Firmat left Havana for Miami in 1960 at the age of 11, when the Castro regime seized his family's business and assets. He recounts his family's struggle to make ends meet, their desperate yearning to return to their homeland, and their despair at the failure of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Exile became immigration, and Perez Firmat shows that the impact was not only personal but cultural, for the passing of a generation can dilute a culture to the point of eventual extinction. Recommended for academic and public libraries, especially for students of Latin American and cultural studies.?Philip Y. Blue, Dowling Coll. Lib., Oakdale, N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 213 pages
• Publisher: Arte Publico Press; Paperback edition (December 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558854614
• ISBN-13: 978-1558854611
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #396,995 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for all ages, January 31, 2001

By	Ernie Padron (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Next Year in Cuba: A Cubano's Coming-Of-Age in America (Paperback)

As a young person who was born in the United States but whose parents were born in Cuba, identity has never been black and white for me--although it has always been blue, red, and white. This book crystallized so many emotions that I had felt my entire life but had never really examined. If you are 22 and have never been to Cuba, but still call yourself Cuban or if you are 60 and think if your childhood on that island paradise everyday--this book will make you laugh, it might make you cry, and it will certainly make you think. For over forty years now Cubans have been hoping for that "next year" to come to fruition, but we are still waiting. This book will make you long for "next year" like never before. Read it--you will never forget you did.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will next year be THE year?, September 5, 2000

By	Tere (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Next Year in Cuba (Paperback)

That is the question that has echoed throughout the Cuban exile community for over 40 years. As the older generation fades, the new generation continues to ask, to wonder, if the next year will finally be the year when Cuba will be free and Castro will be, and there's no other way to say it, dead.

Perez Firmat and I stand a generation apart, yet reading this book, there really was no difference. The Cuban-American experience has much to do with yearning, an emotion that this book succeeded in evoking. We yearn for the Cuba we hear our relatives talk about. We yearn for the freedom of this never-seen homeland, to see the end of the tyranny. And we also yearn for this America, for the apple pie and Coca-Cola life we see and hear all around us, yet can never fully belong to.

Being Cuban-American is not only complex, it is two extremes thrown together. Finding our identity as we straddle two nations is a challenge even now, 40 years later, and even to people like me, first-generation Cuban-Americans. You are forced to ask over and over again, What am I? I am not Cuban, I was born here in the U.S. But I am not American, my "Cuban-ness" is such a strong, obvious part of me it cannot be denied.

Next Year in Cuba does a great job of giving an eloquent, humorous voice to this complexity. It's a great read on the Cuban-American culture, sure to give a better insight and appreciation to those wanting to know more.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest and Very Funny, May 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Next Year in Cuba (Paperback)

That we Cubans and Cuban-Americans can find humor in any situation--even the most tragic and overwhelming--is a testament to our strength. This book is a poignant, funny, and sometimes sad tale of one man's struggle to find his identity. It is a very personal self-examination, but one that most of us (all us "hyphenated" people) can relate to. Are you Cuban? Are you American? Are you "of Cuban descent"? Are you Cuban-American? Are you one person at home and another at work? These are difficult questions, and he walks us through the even more difficult process of trying to find an answer. Does he have an answer? Yes and no. The author also explores the Cuban community's rise from its initial status as an underprivileged, immigrant, "exile" community, to its present role as an assimilated, politically active, financially powerful ethinic force. All of this adds more depth to his own personal identity issues. The book is fascinating, thoughful, and full of relatives we can all look at and say "I have an aunt/uncle/mother/father/etc. just like that!"

In the wake of the Elian Gonzalez saga, I just hope everyone reads this and remembers how and why we got here. Thank you, Professor Firmat.