Dreaming in Cuban (2011)
“She was filling a pail with cowries and bleeding tooth. Felicia used to collect seashells, then rearrange them on the beach before going home because her mother wouldn’t allow them in their house. Felicia designed great circles of overlapping shells on the sand, as if someone on the moon, or farther still, might read their significance. I told her that at my house we had many shells, that they told the future and were the special favorites of Yemayá, goddess of the seas. Felicia listened closel...y, then handed me her pail.
“Will you save me?” she asked me. Her eyes were wide and curious.
“Sure,” I answered. How could I realize then what my promise would entail?
Felicia’s parents were afraid of my father. He was a babalawo, a high priest of santería, and greeted the sun each morning with outstretched arms. His godchildren came from many miles on his saint’s day, and brought him kola nuts and black hens.
The people in Santa Teresa del Mar told evil lies about my father. They said he used to rip the heads off goats with his teeth and fillet blue-eyed babies before dawn.MoreLess
“Will you save me?” she asked me. Her eyes were wide and curious.
“Sure,” I answered. How could I realize then what my promise would entail?
Felicia’s parents were afraid of my father. He was a babalawo, a high priest of santería, and greeted the sun each morning with outstretched arms. His godchildren came from many miles on his saint’s day, and brought him kola nuts and black hens.
The people in Santa Teresa del Mar told evil lies about my father. They said he used to rip the heads off goats with his teeth and fillet blue-eyed babies before dawn.MoreLess
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