My Author Copies of I AM CUBA Just Arrived — And It's More Than Just a Book

Today, the box arrived. My author copies of I AM CUBA, my third book, are finally here.

For most writers, this is a celebratory moment — a day filled with excitement, the promise of book tours, interviews, sales, and exposure. And yes, I feel those things too. But more than anything, today is a day of reflection.

Writing this book wasn’t just a creative process; it was a spiritual and emotional one. Getting this story out of my head and onto the page was like birthing something that had been growing inside me for years. And now it’s real — bound in paper and ink, ready to be read, interpreted, and felt by others.

But why did I write I AM CUBA?

No one is clamoring to read a dry historical account of colonization, exploitation, and loss. But if you take a cue from the Anansi storytelling tradition — weaving truths inside of fables, love stories, thrillers — you can take readers on a journey where they’re learning without even realizing it. They’re experiencing history as we did — not as a list of dates and names, but as life: complex, painful, joyful, full of love and struggle.

That’s what I aim to do with every story I write. Because our history isn’t just in textbooks — it lives in our bones, our culture, our language, our resistance. It’s a choir of voices, all telling the same story: how we’ve turned misfortune into fortune, again and again.

Understanding our past helps shape our identity as a people. It forces us to examine who we are versus who the world expects us to be. We have lived with the stories others have told about us for too long. I choose to tell our own.

So, yes — I AM CUBA is here. But more importantly, so is our story. Our voice. Our truth.