Oye What I'm Gonna Tell You
When is your culture bad for you? That is the question that weaves its way through Oye What I'm Gonna Tell You, a startling collection chronicling the lives of Cuban Americans from WWII-era Havana to contemporary times in "el norte." Whether they inhabit blue collar neighborhoods in the northeast, the increasingly Latino-populated south, or Florida, the characters that populate this book—many of whom are the children and grandchildren of exiles, who have been raised in traditional Cuban homes but whose only homeland has been the United States—must decide what to take and what to leave from their upbringing.
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"OYE WHAT I'M GONNA TELL YOU gives us an urgent glimpse into the lives of people yearning to fully understand their place in the world. Through these myriad voices, Milanés evokes a sense of the vital oral traditions that have shaped our community. These stories enrich and complicate an important, relevant conversation about what it means to exist on the hyphen -- be it that of Cuban-American or any other truly American experience." -- Jennine Capó Crucet, author of HOW TO LEAVE HIALEAH and MAKE YOUR HOME AMONG STRANGERS
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"To be of color in America is to know difference in a profound way. In Oye, What I’m Gonna Tell You, Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés writes a risky, remarkable, and necessary story collection. Milanés creates extraordinary characters each of whom is striking out for territory unknown, both geographically and personally. There is a resilience of spirit in her Cuban-American characters, who make a home that is a hybrid of two worlds. Fresh and evocative, this is the story collection you’ll want to read this year."
-Nina McConigley, author of Cowboys and East Indians, winner of the 2014 PEN Open Book Award