Aire encantado: Dos culturas, dos alas

Enchanted Air #1

by Margarita Engle

Now available in Spanish! In this poetic memoir, which won the Pura Belpré Author Award and was named a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, acclaimed author Margarita Engle tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War.

Margarita is a girl from two worlds. Her heart lies in Cuba, her mother’s tropical island country, a place so lush with vibrant life that it seems like a fairy tale kingdom. But most of the time she lives in Los Angeles, lonely in the noisy city and dreaming of the summers when she can take a plane through the enchanted air to her beloved island. Words and images are her constant companions—sources of comfort when the children at school are not.

Then a revolution breaks out in Cuba. Margarita fears for her far-away family. When the hostility between Cuba and the United States erupts into the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Margarita’s worlds collide in the worst way possible. How can the two countries she loves hate each other so much? And will she ever get to visit her beautiful island again?

Genres: Poetry, Memoir, Nonfiction, Middle Grade, Biography, Novel In Verse, History

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2015

About the author

Margarita Engle is a Cuban-American poet, novelist, and journalist whose work has been published in many countries. She lives with her husband in northern California.

Reviews

[Rachel L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the privilege of hearing Engle speak this past fall and I immediately bought this book after hearing her story because I wanted to know more. I found Engle's story to be haunting, because while it happened from 1950's-1960's, this book is extremely relevant for many children now.

Beautifully written, I am eager to devour more by Engle. Hopefully sooner rather than later.


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[Ricki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a poignant memoir in verse about Margarita’s experience as a child of two cultures. Her words float across the page. Margarita beautifully balances the vibrance of Cuba and the noise of Los Angeles during Cold War and Missile Crisis. The title reflects the content because this book has wings. It lifts readers to another time and place in history and vividly captures her childhood.

[Abby Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really beautiful book. This finely crafted memoir in verse depicts Margarita Engle's childhood, traveling to Cuba to visit her mother's family there and growing up in America while events like the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis were going on. Fans of BROWN GIRL DREAMING, don't miss this one!

[Holly Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but look at this one! So beautiful. Fortunately, the inside matches the outside - a beautiful memoir in verse by Cuban-American Margarita Engle. It's full of gorgeous language that describes the angst of growing up, feeling torn between two countries, longing for adventure and travel, not always fitting in, confusion over politics and culture clashes, the beauty of Cuba and America, the love of art, stories, and poetry, and so much more. It makes me want to visit Cuba! I was just as absorbed in this story as I was in Brown Girl Dreaming - they will sit side by side on my bookshelf.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0. This was a solid read, but it felt a little thin in areas and I think it would have been much better had the author added more content. It just had the feeling of being a little disjointed. At times it felt like memoir, at times a history lesson and at times a travel brochure. I just wish the author had spent more time on all three and added more detail. I really enjoyed the perspective of having two selves and her descriptions of Cuba made me want to visit. I am so glad she can finally be reunited with her family..

[Linda Lipko · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lovely book, written in poetry explores the thoughts and feelings of the author as a young child embracing both the cultures of Cuba, her mother's country, and the United States, the country where she resides.

Visiting Cuba when a child and documenting the rich culture, the air, the markets, the colors and the freedom depicted in poetic form by the author lends to a stunningly beautiful rich feeling.

Returning to the United States and learning art, music and culture, the author compares and contrasts the countries.

Writing of her fears during the Cuban Missile crisis enables the reader to feel the pain of Cubans who are impacted dramatically, while focusing on the fears of the United States as Russia and the United States struggle for a peaceful resolution.

Beautiful, insightful and stunningly written, I highly recommend this book.

INVESTIGATED

One day Mami receives a phone call
that makes her look terrified
She calls Dad and begs him to rush hom.

A few minutes later, two men in suits
knock on our door.
Luckily, Dad is home by the time Mami
has to face two grim agents
from the Federal Fureau of Investigation.
FBI
Just like on TV.
Only somehow, now
we are suddenly the bad guys

What's wrong with receiving
phone calls, letters, and packages
from Cuba?

Are we supposed to care less
about Mami's family on the island
than Dad's family -- my grandma
and grandpa, aunts, uncles,
and cousins
who live so close
who live so close
that we see them
every Sunday?

Can one half of my family
really be so much worse
than the other?

If only I could just be myself,
instead of half puzzle
and half riddle.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every book I've read about Cuba makes me want to visit the island. This book is no exception. Engle here describes in poems her childhood until the age of 14. Her father was American, but her mother was from Cuba, and they lived in various places on the west coast. They would make the trip to Cuba to visit the relatives as often as they could. What I related to here was her experiences in school during and after the Cuban missile crisis. How well I remember, even though I was half her age at the time. It's so sad that it had to divide families. I didn't know that Cubans in the U.S. at that time were detained and questioned by the government on suspicion of being Communist. I can also relate to some of her childhood frustrations, such as not being able to have something you really want (for her it was a horse, for me it was a piano). Like all teens, she wondered what her place in the world would be, and here she is today, using her love of poetry and stories to write award-winning novels and non-fiction in verse. And out of her love of plants and animals on the relatives' farms in Cuba, she also became an agronomist, which I didn't know. The lesson is to follow what you love (which is how I became a librarian). This Pura Belpre winner is a quick, enjoyable read that I highly recommend.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't
poetry.

Poetry
isn't short
sentences
on too much paper.

It is more than that.
Think of the trees.

But
the woman who chose
this book for
my book
club made a good
choice because
this book
is actually fantastic.

Margarita Engle
's childhood
between the US and Cuba
during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Red Scare,
between a world of cars and
a world of horses
where she has no friends
or so many cousins
but she is
always different.

I would have liked
to know more
about
her
story,
anecdotes not lines
but
I read this book in
one hour
and
forty five
minutes.

When I picked
the book
for book club,
it was
accidentally
five hundred pages long.

I'm sorry.

Read this book
It rules
Probably her other
books too.
Are they
all
choppy sentences?
It's cool.
I like
short books.

Highly
recommend.

[Hallie Jackson Brackett · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars.

The good: There's a reason why this is an award winner. Several reasons, really. I've just finished the book and I'm still a bit swept up in the emotions that are inherent in finishing something so beautiful, but I will try to collect my thoughts here. First, the language is beautiful and lyrical while remaining accessible to middle grade readers. The themes and metaphors are complex enough to engage YA and adult readers. The plot flows nicely and doesn't have any of the narrative hiccups that verse novels are prone to. The most important element of this novel, though, is that it gives a human face to a conflict of which many (most) Americans have only seen one side. This would be a great companion read for middle and high school students learning about the Cold War or Latin American History.

The not so good: There's nothing that I did not like about this novel.

Who I'd recommend it to: Obviously, readers who like historical fiction and anyone who is looking to read more diversely. I'd specifically recommend this title in conjunction with All the Light We Cannot See, The Book Thief, Wolf by Wolf, Shades of Gray, Code Name Verity, and Number the Stars.

[Connie D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a poignant memoir in poetic form of the first 14 years of a girl's life. Margarita is a girl caught between two cultures and families, her mother's in Cuba and their family home in the U.S.

I think she states her complicated feelings best herself:

It really is possible to feel
like two people
at the same time,
when your parents
grandparents
memories
words
come from two
different
worlds.

When the Cuban Revolution occurs, life, communication and travel to Cuba gets much more difficult, though not impossible. In 1960, she revisits the family homes and farms in Cuba, loving the natural beauty, her family, and horses; it's the last time until 2015 that any of them are able to go there again. I love the way her nuclear family finds ways, especially through travel, to alleviate this loss, making life joyous through connections to nature, art, words, and people.

[Kim Clifton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author writes in her end note that she was reluctant to write a childhood memoir, and unfortunately that reluctance shows in the book. The poems are beautiful, but there's something missing-- they feel connected in sections, and then there are complete gaps in time. I especially liked the section on Margarita's childhood trip to Cuba and feeling more of herself there riding horses than growing up in a US city, but I feel like that coming of age story never fully developed. Instead of continuing with her life in the US, she tells about traveling to Europe. I guess this shows her partly satisfied wanderlust, but I was hoping to see her complete development from childhood dreamer to adult poet.

[Mary Louise Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a child, Margaret Engle loved visiting the Cuba of her mother's people-- the trees, the birds,the sea, which made it an enchanted place. But then the revolution in Cuba and later, the 1960s Cuban Missile Crisis change the relationship between the United States and Cuba. All this news confuses one sensitive girl who loves both countries and doesn't understand the politics that keep her wings clipped so that she can't fly to Cuba and visit the land she loves and her family.

I appreciated that the author shared her memoir of loving both the United States and Cuba, and her hopes of returning to Cuba in the near future.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think my mind can fully process yet how much I loved Margarita Engle's beautiful memoir in verse. I need to come back and write a longer review when I'm not feeling ALL THE THINGS all at once.

Lovers of Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming will love Enchanted Air. Put this book on your TBR list and look for it to hit bookstores in August.

[Chantal Hernandez-Sierra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't really into this book. I tried to like it but it just didn't grab my attention through out the whole book. I don't really recommend this book. Maybe other people will like it but it wasn't the book I like.

[Mrs.Heather Lassley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have found that I love everything that Margarita Engle writes. Not only does she beautiful describe things through verse, but I feel like I know her even though I have never met her.

[Laura Resau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, moving, captivating... and I learned so much! Highly recommended!

[Sarah Krajewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margarita Engle's poetry was beautiful, but I found this story lacking at times. I wanted to know more about my conflicted narrator than I ended up learning.

[Monica Edinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review here.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely memoir about life as the child of a Cuban mother and American father in the late 50s and early 60s. There’s just something special about books written in verse and the verse combined with occasional Spanish phrases felt magical. I especially loved her musings on loving more than one country and her thoughts on how we see history.

“All we learn about is Ancient Rome
and George Washington,
as if only the distant past
can ever be
understood.”

I wonder whether we can ever really understand the past, but books like this make me want to keep trying.

[Tina Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enchanted Air is a spectacular book. Spectacular. Engle creatively uses free verse to tell the compelling story of her childhood and heritage, half of which is Cuban, and in the telling also offers a vivid snapshot of an important period in modern history. And if the beautiful writing and interesting narrative of this memoir aren’t enough, Enchanted Air has the most beautiful cover design I have ever seen, and a lovely interior design and layout, as well. This is a breathtaking work of art by any and all measures.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not expecting this book to be a book of poems but I really enjoyed it! I think her sense of longing and trying to understand complexities at a young age is something everyone can relate to. A very quick read as well

[Holly Fleming · Rating 2 out of 5]

read for class. not my thing but not bad. literally read the whole thing in 2 hours

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie’s Picks: ENCHANTED AIR: TWO CULTURES, TWO WINGS: A MEMOIR by Margarita Engle, Atheneum, August 2015, 208p., ISBN: 978-1-4814-3522-2

“I was walkin’ down the sidewalk not causin’ any harm.
The radio reported, it sounded with alarm.
The Russian ships were sailin’ all out across the sea.
We all feared by daybreak it would be World War Number Three.”
-- Bob Dylan “Cuban Missile Crisis”

“After those first soaring summers,
each time we fly back to our everyday
lives in California, one of my two selves
is left behind: the girl I would be
if we lived on Mami’s island
instead of Dad’s continent.

On maps, Cuba is crocodile-shaped,
but when I look at a flat paper outline,
I cannot see the beautiful farm
on that crocodile’s belly.
I can’t find the palm trees,
or bright coral beaches
where flying fish leap,
gleaming
like rainbows.

Sometimes, I feel
like a rolling wave of the sea,
a wave that can only belong
in between
the two solid shores.

Sometimes, I feel
like a bridge,
or a storm.”

Cuba has long been a place of mystery and interest to me. Havana was one of the ports of call on my parents’ honeymoon cruise in the early 1950s. I grew up with photos, postcards, and tchotchkes from their trip, and occasionally I sampled a bottle of cloyingly sweet Cuban pineapple liqueur that gathered dust in the back of their liquor cabinet.

As an elementary school student in the 1960s, I was too young to understand the rationale for air raid drills and the futility of seeking shelter from nuclear war by ducking under our desks. As I grew and learned the darker side of American foreign policy, I came to understand more about Cuba and wondered whether the situation would eventually evolve.

It’s both magical and unnerving to experience Cuba of the 50s and early 1960s through the eyes of Margarita Engle. She grew up having summer relationships with four generations of her maternal relatives in Cuba before the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missile Crisis all but severed her connection to the island. There are tales of idyllic rides on bareback horses and warm days outdoors, working alongside a great-grandmother who was born back when Cuba still belonged to Spain. But we also see hints of the growing crisis: she begins encountering the bearded, khaki-clad soldiers. Then, one summer, Engle’s mother worries that she won’t be able to get the required paperwork to return home to California with her daughters.

Back in California, Margarita Engle was a bright young girl who was too often treated in a vile fashion by ignorant, oh-so-patriotic American adults who blamed her for America’s troubles with Cuba because she was of Cuban descent.

The beautiful poetry of ENCHANTED AIR transports us to a time and a place that’s been unknown to most of us in the US. It will enlighten young people about a place so close to the US of which they likely know nothing.

The Obama administration has sought to move toward normalizing relations with Cuba. But given the war of words I’ve recently read--with Senator Marco Rubio taking one extreme position and Cuban President Raul Castro staking out another one-- ENCHANTED AIR might be as close as I ever get to that island.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
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[Caroline C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enchanted Air is a collection of poems that tells the story of the author, Margarita Engle’s childhood growing up in Los Angeles as a Cuban American. At the beginning of this book Margarita describes her travels to Cuba with her mother and older sister. During her time there she develops an even stronger love for the island and the people. However, soon after her visit, the Cuban Revolution breaks out and the Cold War begins to unfold. A ban on travel between the two countries keeps Margarita from visiting her family and the place that holds such a special place in her heart. She goes on to share her struggles with fitting in and finding her place in the world. She has a hard time understanding how two cultures that mean so much to her can hate each other as much as they do. Margarita uses her memories from her time in Cuba to bring these two worlds back together.

I found this memoir to be an engaging read that challenged my own perspective on a hostile time in history. I also like how the author told her story through a collection of poems. The vivid language used brings this story to life. One thing I struggled with while reading this was remembering some of the historical events. However, at the end of the book the author gives a detailed timeline of events that occurred before and after the Cold War. This is a helpful reference tool.

This book would be a wonderful mentor text for modeling poetry writing with older students in grades 6-8. Through a read aloud or book club, teachers can use Margarita’s story as a way to address challenging issues that many students in this age group experience such as the desire for social acceptance while often feeling like an outsider. Additionally, teachers could use this book to build students background knowledge of our country’s history with Cuba and then relate it to current events.

Enchanted Air is a beautifully written story that reminds its readers of the importance of appreciating different cultures. I was fortunate enough to learn about this book while taking a Children's Literature class over the summer. I was so engaged in the author's life story and her style of writing that I was able to finish this book in one sitting. As a teacher, that is a feeling I want all of my students to have when they read for pleasure. Since this is a book I enjoyed reading, I hope by sharing it with other readers (young or old) they will experience the same joy that this story brings.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this verse memoir, Engle tells the story of her childhood during the Cold War. With half of her family coming from Cuba and a grandmother who still lived there, Engle had a strong connection to Cuba. It was there that as a child she found herself, connected to the island culture and lifestyle, ran wild in nature, and discovered a quieter life. It contrasted with her life in Los Angeles, filled with bustle and crowded with people. Through both of these distinct worlds, she has a constant, her love of books and words. As the Bay of Pigs escalates, Engle fears for her island family and has to deal with the increased hatred of Cuba and Cubans in America. Cut off from family with the Cuban embargo, Engle can do little to help and again turns to her words to express herself.

Engle is one of the best verse novelists working today. While all of her previous books are splendid, this one is personal in a new way, one that offers up her heart. She shows her love of Cuba so vividly and so profoundly that her connection there runs through the entire novel. At the same time, she also shares the loneliness of a girl who likes books and words and who struggles to make friends at times. Add to that the political turmoil that has continued for decades and you have a book that could have been a tragedy but instead rises beyond that and straight into hope.

As always, Engle’s verse is exceptional. She captures emotions with a clarity in her verse that makes it immensely compelling to read. There are poems that show a pig being slaughtered on the farm in Cuba that makes it sound both brutal and delicious, the perfect mix of tempting and revolting. There are poems that capture the night sounds of Cuba and the longing for a horse of her own. They show the beauty of milking cows, the strength of a hard-working hand, the joy of connecting with a horse as you ride it. It all melts together into a picture of Cuba that is both personal and universal.

Give this to children who loved Brown Girl Dreaming for another verse memoir that is sure to inspire young readers to see the world in a more diverse and brilliant way. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A verse memoir of Margarita Engle’s first fourteen years, especially poignant because toward the end was the time that Cuba and the United States became enemies, thus Margarita and her family no longer had a way to be with their family in Cuba. Reading a story in poetry is such fun; the poems create a tone together that doesn’t happen in prose, or at least not in the same way. In this story, the reader knows the bittersweet almost immediately when there are words about Margarita’s mother, Cuban, far away from her home. Margarita’s father is an artist, and there isn’t always money to make the trip from California. While she yearns to see what has only been described to her in words, the life lived is not a bad one; it just seems that one part is missing. In kindergarten class, “the teacher scolds me: REAL TREES/ DON’T LOOK LIKE THAT.” They wander around Mexico, “instead of flying/through the enchanted air/to Cuba.” But Margarita sees the television news: “Revolution. Violence. Gunfire. Danger.” and she understands. An early look at the child she was is a description of her love of books, and the beginnings of writing poetry: “I carry/my own poems, inside my mind,/where no one else/can reach the words.” Slowly we the reader begins to see this growing up Margarita, lonely for that other land, set apart from those around her. She does finally get to Cuba, one time, feels that part that’s missing fulfilled. There is much more to learn, but the return to California happens so soon. Because of the conflict, visits to Cuba won’t happen for a long time, but the wider world does happen, in Europe especially. It’s a lovely story of only fourteen years, the beginning of a life told in poetry, the background that was poetry. The final poem is titled Hope, beginning with “All I know about the future/is that it will be beautiful.”

[High Plains Library District · Rating 5 out of 5]

As lyrical as it is timely, Enchanted Air Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir by Margarita Engle, uses free verse to imbue the reader with the thoughts, emotions, and even turmoil Engle enjoyed and endured during her childhood travels to visit maternal relations in Cuba. Raised mostly in Los Angeles, Engle developed a deep love for her mother’s homeland—its tongue, culture, food, flora and fauna—at a young age. The Cold War, however, and the United States’ difficult relations with Cuba after the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis, not only build a barrier between Engle and her beloved Cuba, but push her into a period of questioning and rebellion towards her school, classmates, even her family. Her mother turns from émigré to exile, her abuelita (grandmother) and extended family are out of reach, her stray cat feels like a metaphor for herself and her own life.
“Books become my refuge,” Engle writes in the poem “My Library Life,” (p.129) and the seeds of her future success as a poet and an author are seen in the verse that ends “Learning” (p. 134)

At home, I scribble tiny poems
all over the walls of my room.
Inside those miniature verses,
I feel safe, as if I am a turtle,
and the words
are my shell.

With verses that pulse with love, excitement, confusion, angst, anger, loneliness, longing and ultimately, hope, it is no wonder this quick-reading volume won the 2016
Pura Belpre “Author Award.” Adult readers will love its elegance and candor, tween and young adult readers will identify with Engle’s coming-of-age anxieties as well as learn the complicated context for the current process of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba. Curl up with this wonderful book soon!

--Cindy

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written memoir of the author's childhood. Her mother grew up in Cuba, and moved to the US when she married Margarita's American father. The memoir describes her life, straddled between two countries and people she loves, as these countries face an almost-war and her trips to visit her beloved family in Cuba end. My words cannot do justice to the beautiful poetic descriptions of her childhood and her travels.

Things I appreciate: the lovely language, her love of books/reading as well as science, her description/examination of these historical events from her perspective as both a Cuban and an American, the combination of joy and heartbreak, the ultimate hope.

This is a book for the upper elementary/young adult audience.

Here's just one portion of one poem that I love (Secret Languages is the title):
I've never had to live in a place
where I would not be allowed to speak
all my opinions
openly.

Now I imagine how it must feel
to really need poetic metaphors,
instead of just enjoying
their simple beauty.

No wonder Abuelita always finds
such flowery ways of saying ugly things
in her carefully censored
airmail letters.

By now, I am old enough to understand
that the island's revolution merely replaced
one tyranny with another.

Right wing or left wing, tyrants always
try to control communication.
They always
fail.

That last stanza struck me as quite important...tyrants try to control communication. If I taught 6th grade or junior high, I would be likely to read this aloud...this could lead to rich discussions on a number of topics.

[George Merryman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margarita Engle's memoir in verse reveals a life divided in more ways then one. The first part of her story is pre-Cuban Missile Crisis and is happy. Then she is indefinitely separated from her family by the failed diplomatic relationship between Cuba and the United States. Eventually her life regains its former zeal and she comes to terms with her love of both countries. This convoluted blend of internal and external conflict demonstrates the complicated nature of conflict. I will build a unit about cause and effect around this text by combining Kelly Gallagher's "Where Did ___ Come From?" strategy with Kylene Beers' "Tea Party" strategy. I will allow students to choose from a collection of cards which each have a silly U.S. law typed on them. Students will be instructed to go to dumblaws.com ( http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/united-s... ) and research the origins of their chosen dumb law and write a summary of their findings to share with their peers; afterwards students will participate in a "Tea Party" where they share their findings. Upon completion of this activity I will show students some of the U.S. travel restrictions surrounding the break in diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S. and have them briefly research the events surrounding them. The research will result in the students writing a brief summary of their findings that cites their sources. In the end they will participate in another "Tea Party." A reading of Engle's verse novel will follow these activities.

[Ananya Ghosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, beautiful book, a memoir that discusses the Cuban-American author's life divided between two cultures, and how she felt fraught between those two identities. She discusses her early childhood experiences of travel, her relatives and paints the Cuban landscape in such vivid imagery, it all feels so beautiful.

She also discusses the Cuban-American war years when one part of her identity was snuffed out and she felt rootless and distraught. She talks about fitting into both cultures and remaining at the margin, the union of her parents, which was a pure and beautiful tale, her passion for horse-riding and her failure to actually accomplish it. She also discusses the similarities and differences of both cultures and does it all with a sense of wonder!

This composed in free verse that I feel has added to the sense and experience of the story, and even though it was from the memory of the grown up author, of her childhood times, the ideas were clearly not naive or simplistic but neither were they complex as things sometimes inevitably become in retrospection. They had the sense of wonder of a child intact, but refined through adult eyes.

I really loved this book and would highly recommend it. It just left with very good vibes and I hope more people read it now.