outline_us_lit

title is ironic: “Next year in Cuba” isa phrase of Cuban exiles clinging totheir vision of a triumphant return.The Pérez Family (1990), byChristine Bell (1951- ), warmly portraysconfused Cuban families —at least half of them named Pérez— in exile in Miami. Recent worksof novelist Oscar Hijuelos (1951- )include The Fourteen Sisters ofEmilio Montez O’Brien (1993),about Cuban Irish Americans, andMr. Ives’ Christmas (1995), thestory of a man whose son has died.Writers with Puerto Rican rootsinclude Nicholasa Mohr (1938- ),whose Rituals of Survival: AWoman’s Portfolio (1985) presentsthe lives of six Puerto Ricanwomen, and Rosario Ferré (1938- ),author of The Youngest Doll (1991).Among the younger writers isJudith Ortiz Cofer (1952- ), authorof Silent Dancing: A PartialRemembrance of a Puerto RicanChildhood (1990) and The LatinDeli (1993), which combines poetrywith stories. Poet and essayistAurora Levins Morales (1954- )writes of Puerto Rico from a cosmopolitanJewish viewpoint.The best-known writer withroots in the Dominican Republic isJulia Alvarez (1950- ). In How theGarcía Girls Lost Their Accents(1991), upper-class Dominicanwomen struggle to adapt to NewYork City. ¡Yo! (1997) returns to theGarcía sisters, exploring identitythrough the stories of 16 characters.Junot Diaz (1948- ) offers amuch harsher vision in the storycollection Drown (1996), aboutJAMAICA KINCAIDPhoto © Nancy Cramptonyoung men in the slums of NewJersey and the Dominican Republic.Major Latin American writerswho first became prominent in theUnited States in the 1960s —Argentina’s Jorge Luis Borges,Colombia’s Gabriel GarcíaMárquez, Chile’s Pablo Neruda, andBrazil’s Jorge Amado — introducedU.S. authors to magical realism,surrealism, a hemispheric sensibility,and an appreciation of indigenouscultures. Since that first waveof popularity, women and writers ofcolor have found audiences, amongthem Chilean-born novelist IsabelAllende (1942- ). The niece ofChilean president Salvador Allende,who was assassinated in 1973,Isabel Allende memorialized hercountry’s bloody history in La casade los espíritus (l982), translated asThe House of the Spirits (1985).Later novels (written and publishedfirst in Spanish) include EvaLuna (1987) and Daughter ofFortune (1999), set in the Californiagold rush of 1849. Allende’s evocativestyle and woman-centeredvision have gained her a wide readershipin the United States.GLOBAL AUTHORS: VOICESFROM ASIA AND THEMIDDLE EASTMany writers from the Indiansubcontinent have madetheir home in the UnitedStates in recent years. BharatiMukherjee (1940- ) has written anacclaimed story collection, TheMiddleman and Other Stories(1988); her novel Jasmine (1989)153