PUBLICATION DATE: November 2007
Rutgers University Press 288 pages
7 x 10 145 b&w photographs
Cloth $ 29.95
ISBN: 978-0-8135-4189-1
Contact: Shira Dicker,
shira.dicker@sd-media.com,
212 663-4643/ 917 403-3989
Jeremy Wang-Iverson,
jwi@rutgers.edu,
732 445-7762 x 626
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Together, Behar’s poetic and compassionate prose and Mayol’s shadowy and riveting photographs create an unforgettable portrait of a community that many have seen though few have understood. This book is the first to show both the vitality and the heartbreak that lie behind the project of keeping alive the flame of Jewish memory in Cuba.
Author Bio
After Castro’s rise to power in 1959, four-year-old Ruth Behar and her family left Cuba, along with most of the island’s other Jews. But even as a child Behar felt the pull of her native country and wondered what happened to the Jews who had remained. In her latest book, An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba, the noted anthropologist, writer, and documentary film-maker recounts her journey back to Cuba and the Jewish communities she discovers there. Behar’s other books include Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story and The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart. She has also published essays, poetry, and short fiction; her documentary Adio Kerida/Goodbye Dear Love: A Cuban Sephardic Journey, has been shown all over the world. Behar is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and the recipient of fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Praise for An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba
“Ruth Behar’s personal account of the last Jews of Cuba moved me to tears. Courageous, keenly observed, and beautifully written, An Island Called Home is cultural anthropology that rises to the level of great literature.”
—Aaron Lansky, National Yiddish Book Center
“Ruth Behar’s An Island Called Home is a kaddish, an offering, dedicated to the exiles and to the children of the exiles and for those wandering still, searching for their homes. May they ‘not be given up for lost.’”
—Sandra Cisneros, author of Caramelo
“An Island Called Home is a poetic weaving of images and personal reflections. Behar gracefully explores the intersections between time and geography, even as place itself is a distant memory.”
—Maria de los Angeles Torres, author of The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the U.S., and the Promise of a Better Future
“Ruth Behar and Humberto Mayol are superb guides on this Cuban Jewish journey. Mayol’s evocative photographs match Behar’s insightful prose, letting us see, understand, and reflect upon Cuba’s Jews, their history and their persistence.”
—Deborah Dash Moore, author of GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation
“Bravo to writer Ruth Behar and photographer Humberto Mayol for allowing the world to see in radiant detail the ordinary and extraordinary lives of the Jews of Cuba. What an amazing alchemy between two artists who have given us this magical journey.”
—Marjorie Agosin, Wellesley College
Ruth Behar is a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellows award, she is the author of The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart and director of the documentary, Adio Kerida: A Cuban Sephardic Journey.
Humberto Mayol is an award-winning photographer living in Havana, Cuba. His work has been widely exhibited in Cuba, the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
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