Blessed by thunder

the long version

In this evocative memoir, Flor Fernandez Barrios tells the story of her Cuban childhood under Fidel Castro and the dramatic and often profoundly tragic consequences of Cuba's contemporary history. A small child when Castro comes to power in 1959, Flor grows up amid the chaotic events of the Revolution and the irrevocable changes it brings to her family and hometown of Cabaiguan - from the possession and ruin of her grandparents' farm to her parents' bitter disillusionment with the new government. After requesting to leave the country, her family is taunted as "gusanos" and ten-year-old Flor is sent away - along with thousands of other schoolchildren - to a rural work camp where she picks tobacco and sugar cane for several years. Despite the hardships, Flor gains wisdom and comfort from the older women in her family: her two grandmothers, Petra and Patricia, and her Afro-Cuban nanny, Carmen, each of whom teaches her about the power of spirits and magical ways to seek healing. When her family leaves Cuba in 1970, Flor leaves behind forever her grandmothers and Carmen, as well as her beloved homeland. Uprooted and living in exile, she learns to draw on the spiritual lessons she has been taught by the women in her family to find her place in the new world.