Engle, Margarita. 2009. TROPICAL SECRETS: HOLOCAUST REFUGEES IN CUBA. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN: 978-0805089363.
The main cha
racter of this novel in verse, Daniel, is a 13-year-old German Jew from a musical family that decided to flee Berlin after the events of Kristallnacht (“The Night of the Broken Glass”) in 1938. Unfortunately, his parents could only afford one passage on a ship they hoped would land in New York but is turned away and finally lands in Havana. Without his family and unsure if they will ever join him, he meets Paloma (María Dolores), a Cuban girl of about the same age who has volunteered with the Quakers to help the arriving refugees. Her father, El Gordo, is a corrupt Cuban official who finds creative ways to line his pockets at the expense of the refugees. With the assistance of an old émigré Russian Jew named Davíd, Daniel and Paloma eventually help an older couple of mixed-religion as well as people on the two final refugee ships to land in Cuba. At the end of the novel, after it has become clear that his parents will not arrive in Cuba, Daniel grows to accept and make the most of his new situation in his new home.CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Through its easily comprehensible free verse poetry, this novel offers a view of life in Cuba at four different times (June 1939, July 1939, December 1941 and April 1942) through the different perspectives of four characters: Daniel, Paloma, Davíd, and El Gordo. Of the approximately 130 poems, over half are narrated by Daniel, whose story forms the backbone of the novel. Paloma accounts for nearly a third of the poems. To establish that the book will be about the transformation of Daniel from a displaced, angry yet hopeful refugee, his poems dominate the first section. Later, as the character of Paloma begins to affect the plot with her earnest assistance and growing concern toward Daniel, the ratio of poems between the two drops from about 70% to 60%. While this may not seem significant, it should be noted that many of Daniel’s poems in the final three sections are clumped together and concentrated on the development of one idea.
For a young adult audience, the plot moves along quickly. The exposition covers the character development of the four narrators as well as the plot. Daniel arrives in Cuba and subsequently attempts to make sense of this new but very foreign “home.” Readers also see two sides of Paloma. The first is that of the idealistic dreamer whose nickname means “dove” in Spanish because she spends a lot of her time in the dovecote at her house, “my castlelike tower/in our huge, forested garden” (20). Here, she feeds her doves, “who come and go as they please/gentle friends, not captives in cages” (20). The other side is the rebellious young girl disgusted by the money-hungry actions of her father. Even though El Gordo only speaks in two poems in this section, Paloma makes certain everyone knows about how her father sells visas to hapless refugees and takes bribes to decide if they are able to land in Cuba.
Thus, the eventual conflict comes clear early: Daniel needs a place to settle and help doing so, while Paloma contravenes her father who does not see his daughter for who she is: “Paloma is just a fantasy name/the girl dreamed up” (53). His bitterness and avarice stem from the fact that his wife “ran away/with a foreigner” (53) and contrast with the character of Davíd, an old Russian Jew who fled his homeland “long ago” (23). With only a handful of poems throughout the book, his character is developed mainly through the eyes of Daniel and Paloma. He sells ice cream to her, dispenses much-needed resettlement advice to him, translates when the two of them come together, bemoans how Jews are portrayed in the newspapers, and represents the refugee experience when he asks:
…what else can I offer
to all these frightened people
who are just beginning to understand
what it means
to be a refugee
without a home? (29)
Engle cleverly and effectively uses historical events as backdrops to the unfolding friendship between Daniel and Paloma and to the various conflicts in the book. These “large” geopolitical events end up influencing the plot in a number of ways, especially in the later stages of the novel. From December 1941, readers learn that the U.S. has entered the war and that “Cuba is arresting/not only Japanese citizens/but Germans as well” (113), endangering not only Daniel but also Miriam and Mark, an older Jewish-Christian couple that had survived a harrowing escape from Europe. Because secrets are being smuggled out of the U.S. via Cuba by German spies, Cuba decides to stop the arrival of refugee ships. Throughout the whole of the novel, Daniel has hoped to be reunited with his parents so that they can play music together once again. The ships represent his final chance to see his parents and, when they are not aboard, his opportunity to come full circle and assist a final group of refugees. Additionally, the existence of concentration camps in Europe reminds readers of the possible fate of the refugees turned away from Cuba. As Davíd aptly mentions (125), “How can people stay sane/in a world that makes/no sense?”
True to its title, secrets also play a major role in the book. Paloma leads a double life, keeping secrets about herself from her father and about her father from Daniel, adding tension and necessitating that she tell Daniel the painful truth about her father and his actions. Cultural “secrets” are shared as Paloma and Daniel learn about each other and their respective religions. El Gordo, who has his own secrets with the Germans, is humanized by the secret he shares about his wife. Miriam and Mark are secretly spirited to the dovecote at first and then across the island in a narrow escape. Finally, Davíd, from the marginalized, secretive life he has led in Cuba since arriving as a voiceless refugee, prompts Daniel and others to write the “tale of these years in Cuba/even if they write it in verse, in song…” (187), in an attempt to share what could become one of history’s forgotten sidebars. Secrets large and small are revealed in this work of historical fiction.
A final note about the language in the book is critical. Essentially, each poem is a series of sentences, with images focused often on music and doves that are easy to understand. To ensure understanding and emphasize certain words and phrases, lines are broken as in the above examples. This style lends itself to approachable poems that are not heavy on details when read individually. Read as a whole, however, they collectively become a powerful story of two young people, what Paloma means at the end of the novel when she says, “Now we are all free/to tell what we know” (190).
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--This book is an outstanding choice for young people of all reading skills. Reluctant readers will be encouraged by the open layout and brief text, and everyone will be captivated by the eloquent poems and compelling characters. (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, June 2009)
--Engle gracefully packs a lot of information into a spare and elegant narrative that will make this historical moment accessible to a wide range of readers. (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, April 2009)
--The international secrets make for a gripping story about refugees that becomes sharply focused through the viewpoint of the boy wrenched from home, haunted by the images of shattered glass and broken family. (BOOKLIST, January 2009)
-- Succinct free verse poems by Margarita Engle relate this interesting, little known piece of world history…The full-cast narration gives an authentic and distinct voice to each character and will engage listeners. This is historical fiction at its best. (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, September 2009)
-- Readers who think they might not like a novel in verse will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly and smoothly the story flows. (VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, April 2009)
CONNECTIONS
--TROPICAL SECRETS would be a fine addition to a social studies unit on World War II, the Holocaust, or even any movement of refugees in other, more recent conflicts. Students could perhaps examine the lives of refugees in their own or nearby communities. For example, in parts of Wisconsin, there are significant Hmong communities, and in Burlington, Vermont and Long Beach, California, there are Cambodian communities.
--This book could also be supplemented by ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL. ISBN: 978-0671824495, or any other work of fiction or nonfiction set during World War II.
--Other books by Margarita Engle:
SKYWRITING. 1996. ISBN: 978-0553377750
THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA: A BIOGRAPHY OF JUAN FRANCISCO MANZANO. 2006. ISBN: 978-0805077063
THE SURRENDER TREE. 2010. ISBN: 978-0312608712
THE FIREFLY LETTERS: A SUFFRAGETTE’S JOURNEY TO CUBA.2010. ISBN: 978-0805090826
--Other books of historical fiction in verse for young adult readers*:
OUT OF THE DUST. Karen Hesse. ISBN: 978-0590360807
WITNESS. Karen Hesse. ISBN: 978-0439272001
*A very limited list
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