WEBVTT 1 00:00:09.410 --> 00:00:11.970 Hi, I'm Ruth Behar and I'm the author 2 00:00:11.970 --> 00:00:14.070 of "Letters From Cuba." 3 00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:16.070 So this is a book inspired by 4 00:00:16.070 --> 00:00:17.930 my maternal grandmother's story. 5 00:00:17.930 --> 00:00:20.940 And it's about a young girl named Esther 6 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:24.450 who's 11 years old and she's going to Cuba by herself 7 00:00:24.450 --> 00:00:27.850 to meet up with her father who is already there trying 8 00:00:27.850 --> 00:00:31.010 to make enough money to bring the rest of the family 9 00:00:31.010 --> 00:00:35.660 over from Poland, that would be her younger brothers 10 00:00:35.660 --> 00:00:38.150 and her younger sister, her mother and her grandmother. 11 00:00:38.150 --> 00:00:40.360 And so Esther goes to Cuba. 12 00:00:40.360 --> 00:00:43.300 She's a very, very brave young girl, 13 00:00:43.300 --> 00:00:45.440 very open to new experiences 14 00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:48.580 and she's writing about everything that's happening to her 15 00:00:48.580 --> 00:00:52.140 in letters to her younger sister Malka. 16 00:00:52.140 --> 00:00:56.830 And it's a book that looks at the immigrant experience 17 00:00:56.830 --> 00:00:59.890 in Cuba, the Jewish immigrant experience in Cuba, 18 00:00:59.890 --> 00:01:02.210 not something that we normally see written about. 19 00:01:02.210 --> 00:01:05.490 And the story takes place in the countryside of Cuba, 20 00:01:05.490 --> 00:01:07.620 something else that we don't usually 21 00:01:07.620 --> 00:01:09.460 have much writing about. 22 00:01:09.460 --> 00:01:13.060 And Esther goes to the countryside with her father 23 00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:17.960 to live there and she meets all of these amazing people 24 00:01:17.960 --> 00:01:21.840 and gets interested in the different communities 25 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:23.890 that surround her and that includes 26 00:01:23.890 --> 00:01:27.430 the Afro-Cuban community, the Chinese Cuban community, 27 00:01:27.430 --> 00:01:30.180 the Spanish Catholic community, and all of these communities 28 00:01:30.180 --> 00:01:32.680 that have come together in Cuba to create 29 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:36.150 a very unique culture and to create 30 00:01:36.150 --> 00:01:38.030 very unique religious diversity. 31 00:01:38.030 --> 00:01:41.700 And so it's a book that looks at complex identity. 32 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:45.220 We see how Esther is trying to connect 33 00:01:45.220 --> 00:01:46.820 with all of these new communities 34 00:01:46.820 --> 00:01:50.350 and find intersections with her own Jewish identity 35 00:01:50.350 --> 00:01:54.850 and learns both how to share her own identity 36 00:01:54.850 --> 00:01:56.770 with her new friends and neighbors 37 00:01:56.770 --> 00:01:59.610 in the countryside of Cuba and they in turn share 38 00:01:59.610 --> 00:02:03.223 their cultures and religions and traditions with her. 39 00:02:04.232 --> 00:02:07.860 And not only that they end up standing up for her 40 00:02:07.860 --> 00:02:11.480 which is one of the amazing things in the story. 41 00:02:11.480 --> 00:02:15.460 There's a Nazi sympathizer in this small rural town 42 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:17.280 where Esther goes to live with her father 43 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:20.500 and the community comes together to stand against 44 00:02:20.500 --> 00:02:24.500 that kind of discrimination and hatred and injustice. 45 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:27.420 So I think it's a book that opens the door 46 00:02:27.420 --> 00:02:30.230 to the discussion of many, many hard topics, 47 00:02:30.230 --> 00:02:33.970 including antisemitism, injustice, racism 48 00:02:33.970 --> 00:02:36.770 and presents them in such a way that these topics 49 00:02:36.770 --> 00:02:40.067 can be talked about with young people, thank you. 50 00:02:47.780 --> 00:02:49.970 Well, I think "Letters From Cuba" can be used 51 00:02:49.970 --> 00:02:52.740 in the classroom in many, many different ways. 52 00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:54.580 It fits into Social Studies 53 00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:58.590 and it fits into Literature as well. 54 00:02:58.590 --> 00:03:01.677 Any discussion of immigration and the immigrant experience 55 00:03:01.677 --> 00:03:03.870 "Letters From Cuba" will fit wonderfully 56 00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:05.620 into those discussions. 57 00:03:05.620 --> 00:03:09.480 It's a wonderful book as well for talking about allies. 58 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:14.110 Esther finds allies in this rural town in Cuba, 59 00:03:14.110 --> 00:03:16.760 where she goes to live, people who are willing 60 00:03:16.760 --> 00:03:20.290 to stand up against the Nazi sympathizer 61 00:03:20.290 --> 00:03:23.830 in the town who is harassing Esther and her father. 62 00:03:23.830 --> 00:03:27.500 And then Esther in turn becomes an ally to Manuela 63 00:03:27.500 --> 00:03:30.430 and other people in the town who are standing up 64 00:03:30.430 --> 00:03:34.530 against the plantation owner, who is oppressing them. 65 00:03:34.530 --> 00:03:38.410 So it's allyship working in these different directions 66 00:03:38.410 --> 00:03:42.620 and empathy being built across communities. 67 00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:46.060 As a book written by an anthropologist as I am, 68 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:49.520 it's a very good book for introducing kids 69 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:51.560 to concepts in anthropology. 70 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:55.150 Anthropology is the study of what makes us human. 71 00:03:55.150 --> 00:03:59.390 And in anthropology, we strive not to dehumanize anybody 72 00:03:59.390 --> 00:04:01.380 not to other anybody. 73 00:04:01.380 --> 00:04:03.690 So I think it's a book that could be very helpful 74 00:04:03.690 --> 00:04:08.340 for discussions of othering and how to stop othering 75 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:10.460 those who may seem different. 76 00:04:10.460 --> 00:04:15.170 So I think that can be a very, very useful point as well. 77 00:04:15.170 --> 00:04:18.580 And it's a great book for a read aloud 78 00:04:18.580 --> 00:04:20.720 since it's written as a series of letters. 79 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:23.990 So kids can read, can choose to read a letter 80 00:04:23.990 --> 00:04:27.560 and it can also inspire them to write a letter. 81 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.250 And the book as a work of historical fiction 82 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:33.610 inspired by my maternal grandmother's story 83 00:04:33.610 --> 00:04:36.860 can also show kids how to think about history, 84 00:04:36.860 --> 00:04:39.420 how we write the past and why it's important 85 00:04:39.420 --> 00:04:42.270 to be aware of what happened in the past 86 00:04:42.270 --> 00:04:44.170 and to be able to tell those stories 87 00:04:44.170 --> 00:04:48.220 and it might inspire kids as well to think about the stories 88 00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:50.520 of their elders and how they might want 89 00:04:50.520 --> 00:04:53.293 to write those stories up one day. 90 00:05:00.330 --> 00:05:03.270 So what book would I pair a "Letters From Cuba" with? 91 00:05:03.270 --> 00:05:05.300 Well, I think it would go really well 92 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:07.150 with "Letters From Rifka." 93 00:05:07.150 --> 00:05:09.360 In fact, "Letters From Rifka" was an inspiration 94 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:12.110 for "Letters From Cuba" and "Letters From Rifka" 95 00:05:12.110 --> 00:05:16.120 by Karen Hesse, is a book about a Jewish immigrant girl 96 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:20.140 on her way to the United States to New York specifically. 97 00:05:20.140 --> 00:05:22.750 And it's told in letters as well. 98 00:05:22.750 --> 00:05:25.520 And so the reading the two books together 99 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:26.580 could be a lot of fun. 100 00:05:26.580 --> 00:05:28.920 Two books written in the letter format 101 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:33.090 and the epistolary novel format by young girls talking 102 00:05:33.090 --> 00:05:35.380 about their experiences and each of them going 103 00:05:35.380 --> 00:05:38.420 to a different America, "Letters From Rifka" 104 00:05:38.420 --> 00:05:40.310 is obviously going to the United States 105 00:05:40.310 --> 00:05:42.350 and Esther going to Cuba. 106 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:45.690 So I think there'd be a lot of wonderful comparisons 107 00:05:45.690 --> 00:05:48.420 and contrast that could be established 108 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:49.940 between the two books. 109 00:05:49.940 --> 00:05:51.730 Another book that was an inspiration 110 00:05:51.730 --> 00:05:54.030 and that would also be fun to pair "Letters From Cuba" 111 00:05:54.030 --> 00:05:56.580 with as Alan Gratz's "Refugee." 112 00:05:56.580 --> 00:05:58.060 A really incredible book. 113 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:02.010 And he has a character named Josef who is on his way 114 00:06:02.010 --> 00:06:05.567 to Cuba in the St. Louis ship in 1939. 115 00:06:05.567 --> 00:06:09.660 And this was an ill-fated journey at one of the few ships 116 00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:12.000 that was turned away from Cuba 117 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.530 and the German Jewish immigrants that were on the ship 118 00:06:15.530 --> 00:06:17.930 couldn't disembark in Cuba 119 00:06:17.930 --> 00:06:21.010 and weren't able to make a home on the Island. 120 00:06:21.010 --> 00:06:24.740 So it's a very, very important story that Alan Gratz tells, 121 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:27.770 but it's a very different story from the one that I tell 122 00:06:27.770 --> 00:06:28.840 in "Letters From Cuba" 123 00:06:28.840 --> 00:06:32.100 because this is a story about a girl who does find 124 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:37.040 a new home in Cuba as did many, many Jewish immigrants. 125 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:40.630 So it offers an interesting contrast and perspective 126 00:06:40.630 --> 00:06:42.750 to Alan Gratz's "Refugee." 127 00:06:42.750 --> 00:06:47.100 And I think actually if we could read all three books 128 00:06:47.100 --> 00:06:49.280 together and maybe instead of pairing, 129 00:06:49.280 --> 00:06:54.280 we'd have a trio that would be really fascinating. 130 00:06:54.463 --> 00:06:59.360 And in having the opportunity to discuss the three 131 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.530 and discuss anti-Semitism and racism 132 00:07:02.530 --> 00:07:07.250 and discrimination bigotry and how each of these books 133 00:07:07.250 --> 00:07:10.610 concerns itself with those topics. 134 00:07:10.610 --> 00:07:11.760 So thank you very much.