Böcker av Betty Viamontes

En abril de 1980, una familia es despertada abruptamente por fuertes golpes y gritos en su puerta. Los militares han venido por ellos. Es la época del éxodo del Mariel en La Habana, Cuba. No toda la familia podrá emprender este viaje rumbo a la tierra de la libertad. Dos hermanas, que han sido inseparables y compartido la misma casa en la calle Zapote, son separadas repentinamente. Una de ellas, Laura, se irá junto con sus tres hijos para reunirse con su esposo tras doce años de separación forzosa. La otra, Berta, se ha quedado junto a Antonio, su esposo, y sus hijas, puesto que no se les ha permitido partir. Como por arte de magia, tras el éxodo de Laura, Berta y su núcleo familiar se convierten en enemigos del estado. Muchos de sus vecinos, y hasta miembros de la familia, les dan la espalda. Enfrentan el terror constante de que turbas violentas, alentadas por el gobierno de Castro, los saquen de su casa para golpearlos, injuriarlos y hasta ajusticiarlos por su "traición". La familia teme por sus vidas. La familia ha enfrentado una constante y cruel lucha por mantenerse unida y por sobrevivir. Esta lucha, además de quitarles el sueño, la salud y las energías, les amenaza con destruir lo poco que les queda. Deben hacer todo lo posible para salir de la isla, juntos, y salvar sus vidas.

***Winner of the ILBA Mimi Lozano Best Family History Book, and from the author of the award-winning "Waiting on Zapote Street" and "Brothers: A Pedro Pan Story." Betty Viamontes, a multi-award-winning author, is celebrated for her honest and authentic storytelling that captivates readers from the first page. Her works, often rooted in true stories, are renowned for their engaging narratives._______>After Laura's exodus, Berta and her family become enemies of the state. Many of their neighbors and even family members turn their backs on them. For their "betrayal," the family faces the constant terror of being beaten, insulted, and even killed by violent government-sponsored mobs. They fear for their lives. The family faces a constant struggle to stay together and survive, a struggle that robs them of their sleep, health, and energy and threatens to destroy what little they have left. They must do everything they can to get off the island together and save their lives.

Teresa Piñeiro knew no fear. In 1960, pregnant, thirty-one-year-old Teresa Piñeiro, along with a group of men, appears in the local newspaper after she is arrested for trying to hijack an airplane to Miami. The daughter of a retired first lieutenant and professor of the Army and the granddaughter of one of the trailblazing Spanish families who established the town of La Palma in western Cuba, Teresa finds herself in a maximum-security prison where she confronts the Comandante en Jefe, Fidel Castro.Now, four generations of Teresa's family-her mother, her blind grandmother, her ten-year-old daughter, and eventually, Teresa's newborn son-find themselves entangled in a hurricane of ideologies where those in charge hold all the cards. The future of Teresa's family depends on her resiliency during trying times which drove some women like her insane.Teresa is a woman too advanced for her time. On her third marriage at the time of her imprisonment, Teresa has lived a fascinating life full of adventure that has allowed her to rub shoulders with the most prestigious families of the island. Now her past has come to haunt her, and only she will be able to save herself from what awaits._______Beginning with her first book, Waiting on Zapote Street, Mrs. Viamontes documented the terrors, losses, and triumphs of Cuban families. These are not stories of Cold War intrigue. Instead, they are the tales of common people caught up in the delusions of a monster. Most poignantly, they tell of aged grandparents hugging children that they would never see again.Most of Mrs. Viamontes' writing deals with the struggles of poor and middle-class families caught up in a social hurricane. The newest book, Raining Over Teresa, however, breaks new ground. It follows the life of the headstrong daughter of prominent planters who married into wealth. In a single day, she went from a world of privilege to the barbarity of a death prison. This true story gives readers a rare glimpse into a communist prison, headed by the legendary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. It also introduces us to Fidel Castro, not as a political leader, but as an arrogant interrogator, demanding summary executions. Raining Over Teresa, however, is much more than a prison memoir. Astonishingly, Teresa María Piñeiro did not die beside that lonely road where she was dumped. Instead, she began to walk. As I write this, she is 94 years old, retired from a successful career in the United States. Her large family lives throughout the world. Now thanks to the work of Betty Viamontes, a new generation will know how she survived. Raining Over Teresa is essential reading in America in the 2020s. In our "land of the free," college students declare "Free Expression" as reactionary. Speakers with opposing views are shouted off campus. Opposition politicians are indicted and their followers imprisoned. Violent mobs riot in our streets before elections. There has never been a better time to study the lives of Teresa and her thousands of compatriots before we lose our own precious freedoms. Betty Viamontes gives us a window into their world. Allen A. Witt PhDLead Author of America's Community College: The First Century

From the author of the award-winning "Waiting on Zapote Street" comes a story based on true events. In 1960's central Cuba, a young middle-class woman's life is interrupted as she finds herself a victim in what will quickly become a hurricane of world politics and idealistic dogma. "Betty Viamontes's books are not intended to be classic literature. Instead they are deliberately simple, about real people caught in an historical cataclysm. Like most holocaust memoirs, their strength lies in their simplicity. Ms. Viamontes tells a simple story of normal people, allowing the reader's imagination to fill in the detail. The result stays with you, long after the final virtual page is turned." Dr. Allen Witt.

Escrita por la autora de la galardonada novela Esperando en la calle Zapote, describe a los lectores una historia basada en hechos reales.En la Cuba de los años 60, se frena la vida de una joven de clase media cuando es víctima de lo que rápidamente se convertiría en huracán del dogma idealista y de la política mundial.Los libros de Betty Viamontes no pretenden ser libros de la literatura clásica. Al contrario, son deliberadamente simples, sobre personas reales atrapadas en un cataclismo histórico. Como la mayoría de las memorias del holocausto, su fuerza reside en su simplicidad. La Sra. Viamontes cuenta una historia simple de personas normales, permitiendo que la imaginación del lector llene los detalles. El resultado permanece con el lector, mucho después de que se doble la virtual página final. Dr. Allen Witt.

They are both on a collision course with destiny. Amelia, a single woman of faith in her mid-forties, lives with her family in the town of Remedios, located in the center of Cuba. For over twenty years, she has lived her life caring only for others and neglecting herself. In 2022, Frank leaves his home in Miami, Florida to learn about his deceased mother's life by visiting the town of Remedios. Once in the town of his mother's birth, he forges a friendship with Amelia, who connects him to his past, not knowing how much he will impact her life in the process. A creature of habit, Amelia resists his idea at first. Yet, that is about to change. But there is more to Remedios than meets the eye. It is a town struggling between darkness and light, a pillar of faith among despair, a place fighting for its own survival. In a town of ghosts and parrandas, people rooted in traditions still embrace hope as their world crumbles. Orchids in the Shadows, darkness can only be fought with light.

Por la autora del galardonado libro "Esperando en la calle Zapote", otra saga épica que llevará a los lectores a un viaje inolvidable. Cuando la madre de Rodolfo Hernández lo obliga a irse de Cuba solo, nueve años después de que Fidel Castro llegara al poder, él no sospechaba los giros y vueltas que daría su vida. Pero nada podría prepararlo para su encuentro con su tío Arturo en Miami, un hombre con un pasado oscuro y secreto, a quien parecía importarle poco Rodolfo y cualquiera otra persona a su alrededor, un hombre quien le llevaría años entender. Cuando Rodolfo comienza el duodécimo grado en Miami High School, conoce a Lissy, una joven con lentes geek que se ofrece para ayudarlo a asimilarse en una nueva cultura y a dominar un nuevo idioma. Mientras Rodolfo lucha por entender a su tío, trata de comprender los cambios que están ocurriendo dentro de los Estados Unidos como resultado de la Guerra de Vietnam, y lidia con eventos imprevistos que sus padres enfrentan en Cuba, malinterpreta la motivación de Lissy por ayudarlo, un error que reconoce cuando es casi demasiado tarde. La Habana: El regreso de un hijo: un libro que los hará reir y llorar.

It's the year 2021, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, when twenty-four-year-old Lena Pérez discovers her grandfather's love letters. She has just ended a three-year relationship with Paulo Oliviera-a Brazilian ex-soccer player-after realizing he will never be accepted by her Cuban-American mother. She feels lost. Through the letters kept by the wounded Vietnam veteran Rolando Pérez, Lena learns about events that occurred long before her birth and took her grandfather from Cuba to the United States and Vietnam. Through these letters, she is able to peel the layers of who she is, learning about where her family comes from, uncovering secrets, and finding who she will become. ***"In her newest novel, award-winning author Betty Viamontes uses the first-person narrative and brilliantly exploits the epistolary approach. As in her prior works, she continues to describe life in Cuba.The novel is set in present day and is full of surprises that will keep you guessing what will happen next." -Susana Jiménez-Mueller, storyteller and podcaster, author of Now I Swim and The Green Plantain - The Cuban Stories Project podcast. About the Author>Her stories have traveled the world from the award-winning Waiting on Zapote Street to the No. 1 newest releases, The Pedro Pan Girls and The Girl from White Creek. Betty has published nine books, including the novel she wrote to fulfill the promise she made to her mother before she died. Despite Betty's mother's battle with cancer, she witnessed many of Betty's accomplishments. However, she was not able to see the publication of Waiting on Zapote Street, her story.In 2018, actor Edward James Olmos announced that Waiting on Zapote Street had been a winner of the Latino Books Into Movies Award. The Latino Author website also lists this autobiographical novel as one of the best ten books of 2016, and in 2017 and again in 2020, it became an Amazon bestseller in its category, after being selected by a United Nations women's book club and multiple others.Betty's life has been filled with many challenges, but she managed to survive those challenges and help others along the way.>Circumstances / Cuba / DNA results / Exile / Family / History / Love Letters / Grandfathers / Granddaughters / Relationships/ Second Chances

La danza de la rosa es una novela apasionante, donde la autora, Betty Viamontes, recrea los momentos que atraviesa una familia cubana, desde la fractura de un matrimonio que se ve obligado a soportar doce años de separación -el esposo en Estados Unidos y la esposa con tres hijos pequeños en Cuba- sosteniendo la ilusión del reencuentro frente a continuas adversidades. Esta obra, continuidad de Esperando en la calle zapote, narra el reencuentro de la familia y los esfuerzos de la madre, no solo para vencer el extrañamiento que pudo producir la distancia de los hijos y el padre -y de ella misma con su esposo- sino, especialmente, en su inserción en una cultura e idioma diferentes. La tenacidad, inteligencia y, sobre todo, el amor con que los padres pasan por encima de sus propios esquemas mentales a favor del crecimiento y triunfo de los hijos, hacen de esta novela una obra edificante, además del placer que produce una escritura pletórica de emociones.