In this poetic memoir, which won the Pura Belpre Author Award and was named a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, acclaimed author Margarita Engle tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War.

En este poetico libro de memorias–ganador del premio Pura Belpre de autor, finalista del premio de YALSA de no ficcion y premio de honor Walter Dean Myers–la aclamada autora Margarita Engle recrea su infancia, que transcurrio a caballo entre dos culturas durante la Guerra Fria.

Margarita is a girl from two worlds. Her heart lies in Cuba, her mother’s tropical island country, a place so lush with vibrant life that it seems like a fairy tale kingdom. But most of the time she lives in Los Angeles, lonely in the noisy city and dreaming of the summers when she can take a plane through the enchanted air to her beloved island. Words and images are her constant companions–sources of comfort when the children at school are not.

Then a revolution breaks out in Cuba. Margarita fears for her far-away family. When the hostility between Cuba and the United States erupts into the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Margarita’s worlds collide in the worst way possible. How can the two countries she loves hate each other so much? And will she ever get to visit her beautiful island again?

Margarita es una nina de dos mundos. Su corazon esta en Cuba, la isla tropical de su mama, un sitio tan exuberante, de una vida tan intensa, que parece el reino de un cuento de hadas. Pero la mayor parte del tiempo, vive en Los Angeles, sola en la bulliciosa ciudad, sonando con los veranos, en los que puede montarse en un avion y viajar por el aire encantado a su amada isla. Las palabras y las imagenes son companeras constantes, amistosas y reconfortantes, mientras que los ninos en la escuela no lo son.

Entonces estalla una revolucion en Cuba. Margarita teme por su familia lejana. Cuando la hostilidad entre Cuba y Estados Unidos se desata en la in