In 1959, Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba. He has been one of the most controversial figures in the world ever since. This chronicles the Cuban leader's ability to maintain control through ongoing tumult in his country, and in his dealings with the United States and the rest of the world.

Sent to Cuba to visit the father he barely knows, Edver is surprised to meet a half-sister, Luza, whose plan to lure their cryptozoologist mother into coming there, too, turns dangerous.

One night, while Dalia slept safely wrapped in her mother's cool silken sheets, her hair grew and grew. By the time the rooster crowed, her hair had "grown straight up to the sky, tall and thick as a Cuban royal palm tree." Her mother was amazed, and wondered what her daughter would do with her wondrous hair. As Dalia looked at the flowers blooming in the garden, an idea sprouted inside her. She decorated her hair with leaves from the forest and...

While visiting her abuelo in Cuba, a young girl helps him sell frutas, singing the name of each fruit as they walk, and after she returns to the United States, they exchange letters made of abrazos--hugs. Includes historical and cultural notes.

In 1959, Miami journalist and aspiring writer Ed Myers travels to Havana to meet his idol, Ernest Hemingway. A fascinating and unexpected friendship develops as the legendary author mentors young Myers in deep-sea fishing, drinking, and finding his literary voice, while the Cuban Revolution comes to a boil around them. The first U.S. movie filmed in Cuba in more than half a century, it offers an extraordinary glimpse into the life of a uniquely American...

Malin, a Russian literature professor, is sent to translate between Cuban doctors and children sent from the USSR for medical treatment. Torn from the abstract world of academia and forced into the relentlessly real world of medicine, Malin becomes increasingly depressed. When he meets a child who tells him a story, Malin connects with the kids and finds his way through. Just as he adapts to his new job, the Berlin Wall falls and Cuba enters the deepest...