| Although Cuba is only ninety miles from Key West, | | | | defected, leaving his family behind. It took many |
| Florida, the ideological split between the United States | | | | years for him to see his family again. |
| and Cuba has been insurmountable since the | | | | Nancy Lledes Espinoza, a chemical engineer, was born |
| beginning of Castro's revolution. In this book, the | | | | in 1962, three years after Castro's revolution. She |
| author Ian Michael James concentrates on the lives | | | | grew up believing in Castro and his regime. After she |
| of three displaced Cubans as he intertwines their | | | | fell in love and got married, however, she and her |
| stories through the pages. Yet, while doing so, James | | | | husband started seeing things differently. Eventually, |
| brings to the forefront the tragic story of a divided | | | | Nancy and her husband defected, although |
| country under a dictator's fierce regime where family | | | | separately, putting their lives in danger and leaving |
| members have to take heartrending decisions and | | | | their families behind. Nancy's mother was and still is a |
| separate from each other. | | | | staunch defender of Castro. |
| With the initiation of a regime that was supposed to | | | | After an the ink-drawn map of Cuba in its beginning |
| free the Cubans but failed miserably to do so, | | | | and a preface by the author, Ninety Miles: Cuban |
| families separated for reasons of political oppression, | | | | Journeys in the Age of Castro holds sixteen |
| economical circumstances, or the fear for their lives. | | | | chapters, in which the lives of these three people are |
| This in turn led to the Cubans' different and | | | | told, not one by one but all at the same time and |
| complicated ways of looking at the events in their | | | | interlinked with the chronological events. Still, the |
| lives and those of their compatriots. | | | | story is not confusing because of the masterful |
| Of the three people whose lives are brought to | | | | narrative and effective language. |
| view, the story of Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo is the | | | | The book is in hardcover, 216 pages, and with |
| most political. Eloy fought together with Castro and | | | | ISBN-10: 0742540421 and ISBN-13: 978-0742540422. |
| many other men to bring freedom to his people from | | | | The author, Ian Michael James, a graduate of Duke |
| the Batista's corrupt regime. When the revolution | | | | and Stanford universities, is a correspondent for The |
| succeeded and Castro became the new tyrant, Eloy | | | | Associated Press and currently their bureau chief in |
| turned against the new government and Castro | | | | Venezuela, according to the biography given on the |
| turned against Eloy. Barely avoiding execution, Eloy | | | | inside cover of the book. |
| spent twenty years in prison. When he came to | | | | This book is written with deep historical and political |
| Miami after being released in 1986, Eloy had mellowed. | | | | insight, highlighting the trauma of the Cubans. In |
| He thought a dialogue with Castro could be possible. | | | | addition, it is an exemplary piece of journalistic |
| Later on, he could not live away from his fatherland, | | | | achievement, and it reads like a suspense story, |
| and he moved back to Cuba. | | | | capturing the reader from its beginning to its end. I |
| Paquito D'Rivera was very young when Castro took | | | | highly recommend Ninety Miles: Cuban Journeys in the |
| over Cuba. He had some freedom later on as a | | | | Age of Castro to anyone who has any amount of |
| musician but not enough opportunities for the | | | | interest in this subject. |
| achievement he desired as a jazz saxophonist. He | | | | |