Ivonne Lamazares, the Cuban-born author of Sugar Island, remembers that her grandparents used to laugh when she would recite poetry to them when she was 7 or 8 years old.
“They weren’t laughing at me,” said Lamazares before her book reading and signing at the Bruce D. Walter Recreation Center, 507 West St. in Union City, on Wednesday. “They just thought I was cute.”
But at 7 or 8, Lamazares decided never to recite poetry to her grandparents again.
Although she never recited her poetry again, she did keep writing, and her first book, Sugar Island, was published this year by the Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Company and hit bookstores on Sept. 12.
Union City, often named in her book, was just one of the many stops on the Miami native’s publicity tour. Her local visit was sponsored by the Union City Free Public Library.
“I haven’t done anything like this since I became director,” said William Breedlove, who has been director of Union City’s library since for about one year. “But why not? It is a marvelous thing.”
“I am very happy to be in Union City,” said Lamazares to the more than 30 people who filled the auditorium of the recreation center, “because it is such a beautiful and important Cuban and Latin community.”
Writing what you know
Lamazares left Cuba in 1976, on a plane, armed with an exit visa that the Cuban government took eight years to grant. This was in contrast to the experience of the main characters in her book, Tanya and MaMa, who escape from Cuba on a raft that almost costs them their lives. Lamazares said that the book is probably an emotional autobiography.
“The events that happened in the book didn’t happen to me,” said Lamazares. “But the emotional background is probably what I felt as a kid being torn between the values of society and at home.”
The final third of the book takes place in Hialeah, Fla. However, one character, El Gambao, Tanya’s father, lives in Union City.
“I was always very aware that Union City had a large Cuban presence,” said Lamazares, who had visited relatives in Union City after first arriving in the United States.
The Cuban-American population in Union City will be able to relate to the emotions and some of the events that take place in Sugar Island, especially the story of the exodus, the tragedies and the risks that Cuban people take to make it to the United States.
However, the universal human story about the relationship between mother and daughter can be understood by anyone who reads it.
“There is a love and a need in their relationship,” said Lamazares. “But there is also a core misunderstanding.” In the novel, the mother represents big dreams and risk taking, while her daughter wants instant security. Tanya tries to exhaust of all her options for a life in Cuba before she finally agrees to leave on the raft with her mother.
The writing process
Lamazares began writing Sugar Island when her daughter was born five years ago. Since then, the characters have taken her through the book and even amazed and intrigued her at times.
“I have no idea who MaMa reminds me of,” said Lamazares of her character. “That character was like a gift. She was great to write about.”
However other characters such as Melena, the old woman who took in Tanya and her brother in the book, was based on a combination of both of her grandmothers and an old piano teacher she had in Cuba.
“I used to write with an outline,” said Lamazares. “Once I knew what the story would be, I would rush, rush, rush to get there. I lost a lot of the life in the story.”
“Now, I decided to write from one word to the next, makes the final project so much more worth it,” she concluded.
Sugar Island is on sale at major bookstores for $23.