Bio
 I was born in Havana in 1966, right in the middle of a hurricane, and there was a blackout to boot. A nerdy girl and a library rat, I spent more time with my nose buried in books than breathing in fresh air. As a result, I never learned to dance, use make-up or cook. I attended the University of Havana and graduated in 1990 with a BA in English literature.
In 1995 I married Hugh Page, a gentlemanly American psychologist, and with him I came to the United States in 1996. We lived for a few years in San Diego where I wrote my first novel in English, A Girl like Che Guevara (Soho Press, 2004). A Girl… is based on my experience of growing up in communist Cuba during the 80’s. It depicts life at a Pinar del Rio camp and the hanky-panky among students and teachers that went on every night. The story also touches on biracial identity, the Mariel boatlift, Santeria and other Cubaneses.
In 2002 Hugh and I, tired of the jam-packed California highways and the perpetual crowds, moved to Albuquerque. Yet I still miss the Pacific Ocean and the Cuban restaurant Andres’ Patio on Morena Boulevard… Once settled in New Mexico, I started a Ph.D. in Hispanic literature at UNM.
 In Albuquerque I wrote another novel, this time in Spanish. Posesas de La Habana (PurePlay Press, 2004) is a rather distorted portray of my own family. Three women and a girl share a Centro Habana apartment during a programmed-blackout night. They talk, fight and fear the arrival of a thief called El Deslenguador—the tongue-ripper. A real Deslenguador used to lurk in the corners of Centro Havana, eh, I didn’t invent him. The action of Posesas... takes place at the height of the Elian Gonzalez affair, in 2000.
My new alma mater was also a source of inspiration. In a Southwest Studies class taught by Dr. Enrique Lamadrid, I was enthralled by the myth of La Llorona, the Wailing Woman who wanders by the ditches at night after drowning her kids. Her figure took over a play that was originally going to be about Cuban rafters. I ended up mixing both themes in La hija de La Llorona (The Wailing Woman’s Daughter). The play was staged in Chicago by Aguijón Theater in November-December 2006.
 My second novel in Spanish, Muerte de un murciano en La Habana (The Death of a Murcian in Havana), a runner-up for the Herralde Award, was published in 2006 in Spain by Editorial Anagrama. It deals with a bizarre threesome: a transvestite santero, a seemingly naïve blondie (both of them Cuban and penniless), and a businessman from Murcia who goes to Cuba looking for gold, like the old-time conquerors, and becomes… mincemeat. I had lots of fun writing it, particularly weaving in verses from the Spanish zarzuela Los Gavilanes and others of my own.
My doctoral thesis was based on the study of six 20th century Cuban novels where female characters are seen through the male gaze of the narrator. The novels are Las honradas and Las impuras, by Miguel de Carrión; La última mujer y el próximo combate and Amor a sombra y sol, by Manuel Cofiño, and Animal tropical and El rey de La Habana, by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. The piquant excerpts from Animal tropical are probably the most interesting part of the thesis. I strongly recommend you read it—Gutierrez’s novel, of course, not my dissertation.
I remarried after Hugh’s death. Gary James, my second husband, is a ski buff and a retired aircraft mechanic who can fix anything in the house. I graduated from UNM in 2008 and Gary and I relocated to Taos, where we are now settled happily. And, hopefully, for a very long time…
Taos Ski Valley attracts skiers from all over the world. And Taos as such is an organically minded and artistically-oriented town. It has charming boutiques, great bookstores—one is called Moby Dickens— and cows that graze in a zen-like state by the main drag, Paseo del Pueblo. To take a look, click here:
http://taoswebb.com/
My next book Por culpa de Candela y otros cuentos escandalosos, a collection of short stories, will be published this year by Floricanto Press.
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