Contents
Cuba, 1947
Over forty years before, when Nestor Castillo’s future love, one…
Years later, listening to her stories, her daughter, Teresa, long…
Having gone from hotel to hotel and boardinghouse to boardinghouse…
Even those jobs didn’t come easily. Warned by her matronly…
Oh, but her story to that point: Just leaving her…
After that night at the Catalán’s place, her body felt…
Doting on her and knowing just how special she looked,…
The Glory That Entered Her Life
During María’s first year in Havana, she had gotten jobs…
She’d noticed him coming into the club a few times…
Weeks went by before María heard from him again, and…
After that afternoon, beautiful María got used to Ignacio’s visits.
She was learning what men can be about, particularly when…
Not that Ignacio was always so harsh with her. Though…
Now below her windows was a thriving market that started…
One evening at the club a few months later—it was…
She spent the remainder of that night tossing in her…
You see, it happened that a young musician with a…
Handsome as hell, Nestor Castillo made the oddest impressions on…
That next Sunday found them on a trolley heading out…
With María working at night, save for when she had…
One Sunday night she finally had the honor of meeting Cesar…
Oh, but it wasn’t easy; she had grown fond of…
And Nestor? Unable to accept María’s decision, he sent her…
Songs of Despair and Love Havana, New York, 1953–1958
In the summer of 1953, some four years after her…
A story: in 1953, the same year that Castro had…
Not that she ever got teary eyed over him, in…
The truth remained that, for all her feelings about Nestor,…
One Tuesday evening in 1955, the year that Fulgencio Batista…
Some five months later, María happened to be walking along…
It was the kind of decision that, decades later and…
Indeed, beautiful María had planned to make that journey with…
Altogether, though the northeast Bronx was not exactly Havana, María…
Two days later, at the appointed time, María, in a…
She had taken some satisfaction in her memory of Nestor’s…
A year later—in December 1957—at about four in the morning,…
Thank God, as she would tell her daughter, that when…
Another Life
Though she’d long since torn up Cesar Castillo’s letter, a…
After nearly three decades in this country, María’s daughter, Dr. Teresa…
It sometimes got to her, no matter how professionally she…
When it came to romance, Teresita’s mother, as opposed to…
Upon their return, when María ended up at the Catholic…
As the years passed, the settled life of that household…
Of course, there was soon someone else to fill the…
But to say that love was air and to really…
During those long months in the 1980s while Teresita lived…
As much solace as beautiful María took in her verses,…
Oh Yes, That Book
One morning, in the autumn of 1989, while Teresita sat…
That night, after coming home with her heavy bag of…
For her part, María remained blissfully unaware that such a…
María’s opinion of the author was that, though too “Americanized,”…
She’d eventually get her just dues, however: not money but…
Two years later, on an April evening in 1994, something…