About the Book
Dulcita La Balserita
THE STORY THAT GRABS YOUR THROAT AND WON'T LET GO
You smell it first. Havana’s salty sweat. Overripe mangoes rotting in heat. Fear that hums under every conversation.
This is Dulcita’s world:
- Shoes worn thin from pacing the Malecón seawall
- Ears tuned to the click of soldiers’ boots downstairs
- Fingers tracing a hidden diary’s desperate handwriting
“They’re burning books. We leave at dawn. Perhaps forever.”
Now Dulcita holds two lives in her hands:
- Hers – ration cards, blackouts, a grandfather building something illegal in the basement.
- Lourdes’ – a ghost-girl who fled 30 years ago, her words still warm on the page.
TODAY’S MISSION
- Decode the diary’s dangerous truth before secret police find it
- Scavenging for supplies without getting caught
- Teach Negrito not to bark at patrol boats
- Survive a sea crossing where storms swallow rafts whole
WARNING
This book will:
- Make you cheer for a scrappy dog named Negrito
- Leave saltwater streaks on your cheeks
- Remind you that courage wears braids and scraped knees
WHY IT STICKS TO YOUR BONES
Because Rosa M. Fernández lived this. The taste of boiled yuca. The weight of a parent’s silence. That moment a diary’s brittle pages whisper: “You’re not alone.”
LAST LINE BEFORE YOU JUMP IN
Freedom isn’t free. It costs everything you love. Would you pay?