BOOK REVIEW 3

‘The Boy Who Said No’ by  Patti Sheehy

Published by Oceanview Publishing 2013

 A personal family history can be either mundane or fascinating and that of Frank Mederos certainly falls into the latter category.  Related to the author over a period of about a year, Frank told of his birth and upbringing in a suburb of Havana, Cuba, during the overthrow of  Batista’s government by Fidel Castro and how he and his family suffered by finding themselves on the wrong side of the divide. 

Loved and educated in the culture of the old Cuba, thanks mainly to the attention and wisdom of his grandfather, Frank found himself transported at the age of 13 to an unknown destination in the mountains with the instruction to teach a family to read.  This was all part of Castro’s plan to eliminate illiteracy; the schools were closed and children were dispatched to the remotest parts of the countryside to educate Cuba’s poor citizens.  The Haitian family were unwelcoming to Frank who realised he would have to prove himself before they would accept him.  Giving away his blanket to one of the children was a start and learning to fend for himself in this alien environment was essential.  Working from dawn to dusk, he had to make his own shoes out of rubber tyres and pick a range of vegetables as well as sort coffee beans.    Trying to teach the family to read came after work to the light of a candle and as the days dragged on he missed his family more and more. 

Returning to Havana after ten months, the ‘alfabetizadores’ were welcomed home with a great celebration at supposedly having achieved their goal; whilst the children in Frank’s family had benefited, the parents were still unable to read and write.  Forty-two ‘Martyrs of the Revolution’ had died in the campaign.

In the meantime, America had failed to subdue Castro in the Bay of Pigs and it was now considered necessary to train more soldiers in the art of warfare with weapons supplied by Russia.  Frank’s reward for his success in the literacy programme was to be sent away, the day after his return, to a government-run scholarship school where he would be indoctrinated with revolutionary zeal and military prowess.  He was devastated to be parted from his family once again, but whilst achieving the latter during his time there, he resisted the former.

Many Cubans were unhappy with Castro’s regime and left for America after either obtaining visas or risking dying at sea in fragile boats.  The family of a girl who had become very close to Frank applied for visas and Frank looked for ways of escaping by sea.  It was a long and frightening time, trusting unknown men and hiding in the homes of loved ones who risked their lives to help him, but Frank survived the sea journey and eventually began a new life in America with his girlfriend.

A good read which describes the personal journey of a dissident and his determination to escape a revolutionary political regime with which he could not agree.