March 7, 2005
An immigrant family is tested by a series of problems in this unsentimental American dream story by Cruz (Soledad
). Heavily influenced by American television, Esperanza Colón finally has enough money in her secret savings to flee the Dominican Republic for New York, where she is joined eventually by her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. Ten years after they arrive, Santo's widowed father, Don Chan, joins the crowded household. Don Chan was always disappointed that his son married the daughter of supporters of the brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo; he preferred Miraluz Natera, whose passion for change after Trujillo's assassination equaled his own, and in New York Don Chan is seized by nostalgia for his political past in the Dominican Republic. When Santo is murdered in his cab, things begin to go downhill for the family: Don Chan loses his grip on the present; Dallas, with her neighborhood friend Hush, navigates the tricky waters of adolescence; Bobby inadvertently becomes involved in a shooting and is sent to a juvenile detention facility. When yet another tragedy occurs, they all return to the island, and each family member finds some measure of peace. Without a familiarity with Dominican Republic political history and a smattering of Spanish, the events of the novel can be hard to follow; but Cruz's unvarnished, sympathetic account of immigrant struggles suggests she is a writer worth watching. Agent, Ellen Levine.