Latino Bookcase
If you liked Laura Esquivel’s “Like Water For Chocolate” or Luis Alberto Urrea’s “The Hummingbird’s Daughter,” you’re going to love “Cimarrona”
By Elia Esparza
Sara Monteagudo has written a stunning first novel about a young Latina abolitionist named Chabelis. The author skillfully intertwines fact, fiction and folklore to tell the story of a young mulatto (Afro-Cuban) orphan girl who is raised by the Cimarrons, the adventurous men who are now living on the fringe in the hills of Cuba and whose story has never been told.
In history books we were taught about Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, two well-known women in the African diaspora of the U.S. freedom fighters history. But never before had we heard about freedom fighters from Cuba and Caribbean island countries. And, most certainly, we had never heard about the tale of a young orphan—a diminutive tomboy who rose to greatness to become one of the most prominent slave liberators during the 19th century.
“Cimarrona is about a female abolitionist and freedom fighter we have never heard of,” explained the author, “But even if she has been excluded from history books, we can be rest assured that she existed and her spirit lives on.”
Cimarrona brings to life a surprising heroine—Chabelis—a girl who is taught how to hunt and defend herself by her wild frontier savior and adopted Cimarron father, Cooley Valdez. Chabelis goes on to become the ultimate survivor overcoming every life challenge and enemy she meets during her epic adventure.
At four years, fate changed the calm and secure life Chabelis enjoyed with her mother, Carlota. On one remarkable day, the evil Spanish General Valeriano raids the coffee plantation and kills her mother. Cooley, a fearless freedom fighter does his best to defend the plantation but is overcome by a stronger and better-armed enemy. A frightened but alert toddler crawls inside of Cooley’s saddlebag. A wounded Cooley rides back to Palenque Cave, the hidden safe haven where he lives with his band of Cimarrons—Cooley totally unaware of the young stowaway.
And, then at the age of 12, Chabelis encounters another life-altering incident when she’s nearly sexually violated. She recognizes her attacker and just tries to escape, but somehow in her defensive struggle, she accidently kills him. Cooley realizes he wouldn’t always be able to protect her, decides it would be safer to turn his ward over to the strict nuns. Here she would learn how to read and write, and become skilled at the etiquette and proper behavior of a young lady. Cooley ignores Chabelis’ tearful protest as she goes kicking and screaming to the convent.
Life brightens up when she meets Roberto, a handsome young Spanish soldier. Their unlikely friendship turns into love. She also befriends Rebecca Garcia, a young socialite from a rich and prominent Havana family. One afternoon, Rebecca’s fancy carriage rolls through the convent gates. The only one reason why any rich unwed socialite ever came to the convent was because she was with child. Rebecca was admitted into the convent’s maternity ward, which just happened to be the go-to place to adopt illegitimate babies.
In time, it looks like Chabelis and Roberto’s growing love would seal their future. Her education would make her as respectable as any of Rebecca’s socialite contemporaries, and she would make an acceptable bride for the noble Roberto. All that goes out the window when one day Chabelis runs into General Valeriano—the man who murdered her mother. Her desire for revenge is so strong she follows Valeriano intent on killing him. Instead her pursuit leads to fulfilling her destiny as a legendary freedom fighter.
Chabelis is a beautiful and brave young lady as memorable as Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games, Disney’s Mulan, Hermione Granter from the Harry Potter series or Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And, in the opinion of this reviewer, Chabelis is the most remarkable Latina Afro-Cuban heroine to be discovered in the new millennium.
Adding to the story’s enchanted magic is the kaleidoscope of colorful and memorable characters. Each have their own separate stories but ultimately all are interconnected with Chabelis on some serendipitous level. There is Cooley, an Afro-Chinese whose parents are The Duke of Thunder (African) and The Queen of Lightning (Chinese), who ends up marrying a beautiful Afro-Peruvian, Juanita. Their little girl ends up dying a gruesome death at age four at the hands of the one-eyed man. Chabelis, the spitting image of Cooley’s daughter, is in fact her reincarnation.
Then there is Rebecca, the pretty redheaded socialite whose own family holds many secrets. There is Rebecca’s Grandpa Garcia, who owns a bakery—a favorite gathering place that takes on a life of its own. The delicious bakery sweets – guava rugelach, cheese burekas makes us want to go to our local Cuban bakery. And, Fatima, Grandpa Garcia’s employee and eventual wife, holds many secrets that unite Rebecca and her family to Chabelis. This union between Grandpa Garcia and Fatima produced a daughter, Mili, a half Sephardic and half African, mulatto daughter.
And then there is Roberto, Chabelis true love—who comes from an aristocratic family and once lived in the royal palace with the Queen of Spain. Roberto’s father was an abusive, violent man forcing his mother to flee Spain with her son and head to the New World. She dies on the journey and with her last breath asked one of the passengers to please take her 10-year old son to an orphanage in the rural areas of Cuba, a place his father would never find him.
A page-turner I just couldn’t put down. Monteagudo masterfully weaves in variations of folklore into the medley of the culturally diverse characters—from The Eight Immortals of the Chinese, the Spirit of Ku (Gu), to the stories of babies handling snakes that span from Appalachia to the Himalayas, all of which have been documented. References to Greek mythology such as Sophocles’ play Tereus where the relationship between sisters Procne and Philomela is reflected in the dynamic between Mili and Mrs. Garcia. Biblical scripture are also interplayed in in the plot such as the Nephillim giants who walked the Earth and the prophet Jeremiah, mirrored through Cooley who is forewarned not to settle down with a family for the land would be rampant with violence and he would need to focus on his Divine mission.
“I felt it essential to include the Sephardic storyline for two reasons,” stated Monteagudo. “One of the story arcs is on the discernment between knowledge, wisdom, and the power of education. If there is one thing about Jewish tradition that impresses me as a pedagogue, is its constant pursuit of excellence in education. Also, being that many of the Spaniards who fled to the Americas were Jews who claimed to be Catholic, just as the Yoruba of Nigeria ended up doing in order to survive persecution.”
Cimarrona covers a wide range of topics including: friendship, loyalty, self-esteem, and the awkwardness of becoming a young woman, discovering her own sexuality, and the horror of racist hierarchy, which leads to her self-redemption.
A splendid coming-of-age novel about the ingénue Chabelis who becomes a heroine in a magical, 19th century Cuba and is able to rise above the bloodshed because of her raw courage, sharp instincts and her cultural roots as a female Cimarron.
CIMARRONA Sara Monteagudo Monteagudo Publications Young Adult Genre, 254 Pages Available on Amazon.com For more information on Cimarrona and author, visit: www.saramonteagudo.com
About the Author:
Sara Monteagudo
Sara Monteagudo holds a B.A. in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA and a Master’s of Science in Teaching Bilingual Education from Fordham University. She began her career path as a folklorist in 1992 under the mentorship of internationally acclaimed dramaturg, Dr. Beverly J. Robinson, the right hand person in Steven Spielberg’s production of The Color Purple. Sara has been identifying, documenting, and presenting Latino, African and Asian diasporic experiences in the U.S. ever since. Soon after realizing that her heart was in creative writing, she started including her folkloric findings in her screenplays and in her short stories. She was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to a Puerto Rican mother and a Spanish (Gallego) father. She grew up in Cleveland, OH, Larchmont, NY, and in various cities of Spain. Cimarrona is her first “fiction-lore” pan-national epic novel. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter at: @sarautora
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