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A Boy, an Orphanage, a Cuban Refugee: The Road to Freedom
by Tony Dora
GENRE: Biography & Autobiography / Historical
PUBLICATION DATE: 03/21/2023
DESCRIPTION:
This is my story – a nine-year-old boy who, along with his little sister, took refuge in the US from Castro’s communist regime. It chronicles our journey leaving Cuba to our arrival at a refugee camp for unescorted children in Florida, then to an orphanage in Indiana, giving the reader a glimpse at life through the eyes of a boy living with children facing similar situations. It transpires within a fourteen-month period from 1962 to 1963. It ends when we were reunited with our mother.
Why would parents send their children, unescorted, to a foreign country with no guarantee they would see each other again? Most parents would do whatever it takes to safeguard their children’s safety. No price is ever too steep. Thus, Cuban parents started sending their offspring, secretly, to the US. Parents who were deemed guilty of such a crime were imprisoned; some: executed.
This is a story of overcoming life’s difficulties while remaining steadfast in the resolve to rise above the hardship.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Tony Dora is a retired teacher of ESL to Adults. Prior to becoming a teacher, Tony worked for the NY Catholic Archdiocese as Director for Spanish Language Communications, producing and directing nationally syndicated TV and radio programs. He also was a newswriter for WNJU-TV (Telemundo 47) and Worldwide Television News (a subsidiary of ABC TV). He has freelanced on and off-camera directing and acting in commercials. As a member of various organizations, he has performed as a public speaker before a national audience. Some of his short stories, as well as excerpts from this work have been published in various magazines, such as Psuche from Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, Musings, Reflections and others.
Tony served as a commissioned officer in the US Air Force, where he worked as a Chaplain Candidate. At the time, he was a seminarian studying to be a Catholic priest. He was ordained deacon and worked in a parish, where he prepared and delivered homilies.
REVIEWS:
“Tony’s writing is inflected with a persistent buoyancy, notwithstanding the frightening depictions of life under Castro. The author fills detailed anecdotes of his year at the orphanage with reconstructed conversations that display humor and informatively illustrate the meticulous process of learning a new language and a new culture among the strangers who became his friends. There are poignant, teary moments of melancholy and reminiscences of the father he lost to leukemia when he was just four, but Tony focuses primarily on the comfort he found in the compassion of the nuns who taught and cared for the children. Despite a few too many basketball stories, this book delivers an enjoyable immigration story with a uniquely positive perspective. A tender, illuminating, upbeat valentine to the Operation Pedro Pan rescuers.”
—Kirkus Reviews
COMPARATIVE FILM/BOOK:
Film: "A Christmas Story" - 1983 / Book: "A Cuban Refugee's Journey to the American Dream" - by Gerardo M. González; 2018
CASTING:
Luke Dodge (to play Antonio as a 10-year-old) / Emma Watson (to play Sister Kevin) / Tony Dora (Myself, as Narrator - much akin to "A Christmas Story")
PRIMARY VENUES/LOCATIONS WITHIN THE BOOK:
Florida City, or Miami, Florida / Vincennes, Indiana
BOOK EXCERPT:
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