My great-grandmother, Andrea Hernandez Navarro, and her son, Eulalio. Names are
important to me. In the novel, “Lalo” is named because of the lucky combination of
letters. According to my grandmother, her brother was named Eulalio, or Lalo, for
the same reason.
This is my great-grandfather, Antonio Navarro. I wish I had known him. My grandmother
takes after his features, and from the stories she tells, a bit from his personality, too.
He was a stern figure. For example, he demanded silence at the dinner table, and once
quieted one of his sons by smashing a hot potato into his face. An earlier version of
Love and Ghost Letters had a similar scene, but was later taken out.
From left to right, my aunt, Acela, my mother, Marta, and their cousins, Daisy
and Nancy. This was the last time my mother and her sister were in Cuba. They
visited shortly before the revolution, taking the ferry that once left from Miami.
They grew up without their cousins. For me, this picture is bittersweet.
Pictured above are my grandparents, Mario and Maria Asela Garcia. Their first
home in the United States was Los Angeles, California. All of the grandchildren call
them Tito and Tita, short for abuelito and abuelita.