Flight of the Tocororo is a collaboration between two Cuban-American authors who left the island in different historical periods, Susana Jiménez-Mueller in 1959 and Betty Viamontes, during the Mariel exodus in 1980. Susana was five years old and Betty, fifteen.
Both went through extraordinary experiences that would have left anyone crushed. How does a girl who loses her father and sister in exile manage to collect the pieces of her shattered childhood and reach the inconceivable? How can a young woman who lived without her father for twelve years, suffered severe traumas during her childhood, and arrived from Cuba on a shrimp boat without knowing English eventually obtain an executive role in an American organization? How could she be selected by the governor of Florida as a board member of an institution of higher learning, eventually becoming its chairwoman?
Like Cuba’s national bird, the colorful tocororo, the two needed wings to fly and freedom to achieve their dreams. Don’t miss their emotional stories. Betty has written eight books about Cuban exiles so that the experiences of her countrymen are not forgotten. Apart from her publications, Susana brings Cuba’s cry of freedom to homes through The Green Plantain – The Cuban Stories Project podcast. Together, they bring to the world the imprint of the fighting spirit of immigrants everywhere.
