Enchanted Air: To Cultures, To Wings: A Memoir [Paperback]

In this poetic memoir, which won the Pura Belpré Author Award, was a YALSA Nonfiction Finalist, 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.

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, friendly and comforting 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 at 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?Enchanted Air

FLIGHT

The first time my parents

take me soaring through magical sky

to meet my mother’s family in Cuba,

I am so little that I can hardly speak

to my island relatives—

my abuelita, my old grandma,

who still loves to dance,

and her ancient mamá, my great-grandma,

who still loves to garden, working

just as hard as any strong

young man.

Already, this island is beginning to seem

like a fairy-tale kingdom,

where ordinary people

do impossible

things. In Margarita Engle's hauntingly beautiful memoir, readers can't help but feel as if they are pressing their hands with her against ancient cave walls and at the same time falling asleep in a darkened room full of fireflies. Engle's struggle to unite her l.