The Red Umbrella
Christina Diaz Gonzalez
Published- 2010
Realistic Fiction
What would you do if you were suddenly swept from your home? Lucia Alvarez led a easy life composed of clothes, dances, and boys until Castro's dictatorship took control. Although her family opposes his ruling, Lucia's peers are in support of "El Revolucion" and allow politics to intervene with friendship and social life.
When Lucia's father is arrested for suspicion of oppositon, the Alvarez family decides it is the final straw. Lucia and her younger brother Frankie are sent to America, along with others from the Cuban exodus seeking freedom and safety. From Miami, the two siblings are carted off to unfamiliar, small-town Nebraska to live with foster parents until their mother and father deem it safe enough to return to Cuba.
Gonzalez weaves an enthralling tale, managing to encorporate facts about Cuba and Castro's dictatorship as seen through the eyes of a Hispainc teenager learning to make her own decisions in the tumult of the Cuban 1960s. Gonzalez's prose is sincere, genuine, and addicting-- The Red Umbrella does not dissapoint.
Sounds like a great book. I think I'll have to add it to my reading list.
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