Finding Manan A Memoir Of A Cuban Exodus Essay - 1850 Words

From April 15 to October 31 in 1980, over 125,000 Cuban migrants arrived in the United States. Family members from America ferried relatives and institutionalized Cubans from the Cuban port of Mariel, in what was soon coined the Mariel Boatlift. Mirta Ojito, one of these ‘Marielitos’, as they soon were termed, grew up to write â€Å"Finding Maà ±ana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus†. In this text, the author provides a historic account of events leading up to the Mariel Boatlift, narratives from important figures surrounding the event, and a personal narrative describing the struggle of her family to gain freedom from the socialist dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Throughout the story of the years preceding the boatlift and the influence that living in Cuba held on her life, Ojito describes the positive and negative elements of the both the political climate and personal life on the communist island which led to her eventual emigration to the United States. The choice made by the author and her family to leave Cuba stems from the many negative aspects of life due to the communist revolution. Many of the reasons for Mirta’s family to seek emigration arose from the harmful political impact that the rise of Fidel Castro created, which propagated to adversely affect their personal lives. Ojito mentions the opinion about island politics which her parents held as early as the prologue. Her parents never believed, even before Fidel’s rise, that â€Å"A thirty-three-year-old in dirty fatigues and a