Loving Che

Loving Che is a novel by Cuban-American author, Ana Menèndez.

The novel is set in two locations: Miami, Florida, and Havana, Cuba. While most of the novel is set in modern times, one character spends a section of the novel reflecting on her life when she was living in Havana, Cuba immediately before and after Fidel Castro’s Revolution of Cuba in 1959.

Loving Che centers on the experience of displaced Cuban-Americans and their search to learn about their past and shape an identity. The central character, an unnamed female, feels displaced and without a strong sense of identity and individuality. Throughout the story, she raises the courage to undertake a journey to uncover details about her heritage.

Loving Che centers on the lives of an unnamed female protagonist who is searching for her mother, and Teresa de la Landre, who claims to be her mother. Broken into three distinct parts, the novel begins with the female protagonist, moves into a commentary by Teresa de la Landre, and closes with the female protagonist.

Not long after Fidel Castro’s successful Cuban Revolution in 1959, the protagonist’s grandfather takes his infant granddaughter to America, at the request of his daughter (the protagonist’s mother). Growing up in Miami, the protagonist knows little about her parentage or about Cuba. After years of silence and numerous unanswered questions, the protagonist confronts her grandfather about her heritage, particularly pressing him for details about her mother. Talking about his daughter (the protagonist’s mother) for the first time, he reveals she wanted her daughter out of Cuba and promised she would reunite with them six months later. Although the grandfather claims he did not want to separate his daughter from her only child, he obliged.

The grandfather recalls that it was only after he had safely arrived in Miami with his granddaughter that he found his daughter’s farewell note pinned to his granddaughter’s sweater. Unable to return to his homeland because of the political unrest between America and Cuba, the grandfather revealed he tried to contact his daughter, but all his attempts failed. Although the protagonist now has some idea about her heritage, she still feels somewhat lost, drops out of the university, and starts traveling the world.

While traveling the world, the protagonist learns of her grandfather’s death and returns to America. Realizing the passing of time is reducing her chances of locating her mother, the protagonist travels to Cuba with her mother’s farewell note. Unable to locate her mother, the protagonist returns to Miami, starts a career as a travel writer and tries to forget her past.

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