Enter The Natural World
of Cuba and Puerto Rico Through The Eyes of
Alfonso Silva Lee
By Lydia S. Vale-Delgado Alfonso
Silva Lee, a biologist, has truly opened the doors of a world of animals found in the
Caribbean, specifically in Cuba, his native land and in Puerto Rico. Mr. Silva has spent
most of his life studying the tropical habitants of many wonderful animals. As a result,
he has offered to us a world of bright colors and of strange, yet, exciting behaviors of
each animal he has photographed. He and other photographers have made possible our
entering the realms of butterflies, spiders, as well as our coquí and many
other fascinating creatures found on the two islands. Both books accurately record each
detail with a unique style that welcomes readers of all ages to read his descriptions
without difficulty. What makes these books so interesting is the fact that it can be read
either in Spanish or English.
His books entitled Natural Cuba natural published in 1996 and Natural
Puerto Rico natural published in 1998 are written for you, not just for the
scientist, but for the child, man and woman who truly loves the natural world of animals
found here on both Islands. The language used is friendly and sometimes humorous. The
descriptions are vivid and the photographs seem to want you to touch them in order to feel
the texture of the skins of the lizards, iguanas and even the feathers of the many birds
that fly our blue skies. Mr. Silva also invites you the underworld of the many colorful
fish that live in the bright-colored corals found in the depths of the Caribbean Sea and
the Atlantic Ocean that embraces our Islands. The reader will also discover animals he/she
never imagined existed. Scientists are still learning about new creatures that abound
these Islands. Fascinating thought!
 We finally have available
two books that delve into the secret worlds of the many animals found in Cuba and in
Puerto Rico. The books practically hypnotize you. I was able to read both in one day. I
simply could not put them down. Mr. Alfonso Silva Lee, I congratulate you for your keen
observations and love for the natural world of both Cuba and Puerto Rico.
I recommend whole heartily that parents, students, and educators open the pages of
these incredibly wonderful books to fully enjoy the animals we have now and to learn how
to preserve our environment so that you and I, as well as future generations, be able to
continue enjoying the parrot, spiders the size of a fried egg, snakes that live all their
lives underground, and others. Don’t hesitate in placing in your home or school
library a copy of both Natural Puerto Rico natural and Natural Cuba natural
by Alfonso Silva Lee.
Empress of
the Splendid Season
A Novel by Oscar Hijuelos
Through four novels in the last
decade, Oscar Hijuelos has produced a body of work that is without rival in contemporary
literature, both in the lush, incantatory rhythms of his extraordinary prose and in his
profound and heartfelt vision. In his transcendent new novel, Hijuelos tells the story of
Lydia Espana, a beautiful and formerly prosperous émigré from pre-Castro Cuba, who
becomes a cleaning lady in New York. Once the spoiled, pampered daughter of a small-town
mayor and adored by mena "queen of the Congo line"she is forced because of a
youthful sexual indiscretion to leave home and, in 1947, finds herself suddenly living the
life of a working poor. In time she falls in love with Raul, a humble waiter. One night in
a Manhattan ballroom, in the middle of a bolero, Raul purposes marriage, for Lydia is his
"empress of the most beautiful and splendid season, which is love."
A life of promise is disrupted when Raul falls ill and Lydia, finding employment as a
domestic, becomes the head of the family. Striving to educate her town children, Rico and
Alicia, in the style of the upper class, she must endure a lesson in humanity, cleaning
the homes of NewYorkers much better off than herself. Among her employers is Mr. Osprey, a
reserved and kindly lawyer, who eventuality takes an interest in her family's well-being
and, during the turmoil of the 1960s, intervenes at a critical juncture in the life of her
teenage son, Rico. Throughout this novel Lydia remains a sensual and powerful woman who
meets the trails of a lonely life with humor and a gleam of triumph in her eyes a sense
that she is someone special an empress of fortitude, of dignity.
Hijuelo's genius for evoking the heart and soul of his characters has never been more
vivid, moving, and impassioned than in Empress of the Splendid Season. A master of
eloquent detail, Hijuelos allows Lydia to open up, alive and vibrant on the page. No one
writes better of love or the pulse of the city. And no one has better captured the
complexity of what happens to generations of people who come to America: how assimilation
is at once the achievement of dreams and yet, sometimes, a loss of what has rooted us to
the past.
Lydia, I am to you, as a sparrow adoring the sky;
Lydia, you are as the moon reflecting upon the water,
which is my soul;
Lydia, you are the queen of beauty,
the Empress of my love,
and you preside over the splendidness of my feelings for you,
like the morning sun on the most glorious day
of the most beautiful and splendid season,
which is love...
Raul España to his future wife on the night he proposed marriage, 1949, from
Empress of the Splendid Season. |
