Island Treasures: Growing Up in Cuba
By: Alma Flor Ada, Antonio Martorell / Narrated By: Trini Alvarado
Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins
Oh what a delight!
Actually, tacking on Island Treasures as my fifth listen for the week was kinda sorta a mistake. But I’d juuuuust discovered Audiobook Clubs over at audiobooks.com where I’m a member, decided to try the Kids Club, and found this as an offering for the month. I snapped it up, not realizing that the family of another of this week’s offerings was from Cuba also. Would this be too much Cuba? And by the way? I’m not from Cuba, so will I even be able to relate, or will it be a matter of assessing and, hopefully, enjoying as an outsider looking in?
Oh gosh to heavens! I felt sooo much from this little book of short stories/essays of Alma Flor Ada’s childhood in Cuba! CERtainly, I felt more from these stories than from Sandra Cisneros’s woeful The House on Mango Street which SHOULD’ve been more akin to my own childhood. That audiobook had me cringing at how women were treated, at how little love there was, at how little thought/pondering of life’s questions there was.
Here, Alma weaves together the innocence of a child with the creative wisdom of a woman grown and able to look back, embracing always, even when it might hurt. And in such a manner, grown Alma is able to tell us stories of her family members, of abuelas who rock, of tios/tias who inspire grace. Truly, this book had me longing for Christmas Eve with my own (rather) extended family and all the chaos THAT night inspired. I truly loved Alma’s dawning awareness of goodness and steadfastness as she learns lessons from the simple ways her relatives lived—they lived their examples, rarely talked them.
The stories are separated into three parts, each part coming with a Preface and ended with an Epilogue of the author’s thoughts on the sections. I didn’t see the need for the separations; to me, all the sections were of life with much loved family members, life within the community, experiences had whilst living in a rural area or in a more citified house. Each story resonated with love and warmth, with friendships made through the class-equalizing power of children at play. Tho’ Alma comes from a middling family, they definitely have more than most people in each community they’re a part of. But I was much pleased to hear of Alma’s awareness of poverty, even as a very young girl, of her sense that she’d been blessed to be born in just the right place, in just the right family. Her stories of friendship, with children, with adults, are what add to the warmth of this audiobook.
Also adding to the warmth, to the outright affection for a past history, is narrator Trini Alvarado’s rather stunning performance. At all times did I feel that I was listening to a wise uncle, a teaching father, an adventurous cousin, people in the community coming to seek homemade dolls. Alvarado manages such a wiiiiide variety of characters from Alma’s life, AND she even sings the songs Alma has carried close to her heart, songs that vibrate joy and life and special occasions, songs that resonate the day-to-day life of families waking up and buying their fragrant bread for the day, songs for so much more. That Alvarado has a pleasant voice just makes it that much lovelier. Truly, tho’ the audiobook is lacking the illustrations that are said to go with the print version, the narration makes this a wonderful experience via audio.
These stories had me longing to see my family, had me oh so grateful to come from a place of love and sharing; they reminded me of stories my own mom tells of her childhood visiting a grandfather’s ranch, of being amongst cousins and aunts and uncles. And they had me wanting to see the old man who peddled the ice cream wagon in our neighborhood too.
So I’ll say it: Where Cisneros comes at you with limitations, Alma Flor Ada brings love and light. As deep as any ocean, as limitless as the sky and the Universe.
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