90 Miles to Havana

When they arrive at the harbor, they are greeted by Julian’s mother and the Garcias, who are Angelita’s parents and her younger brother Pepe. Julian notes that his mom and Mrs. Alida Garcia like to trade jewelry; Alida is wearing his mother’s golden swallow pin. The families have a quiet dinner and throw confetti to celebrate the new year.

Suddenly, they hear gunshots and hide under the dinner table. The shooters are celebrating the departure of dictator Fulgencio Batista and shouting “Viva la revolucion!” (17). His father orders the party to be over, and Julian notices that he sounds afraid.

As they drive home, they notice mobs of people celebrating and destroying the president’s home. Julian’s father explains that these people are “taking back what he took from them,” while his mother encourages them to not look away from the scene because she does not want them to “ever forget what a revolution looks like” (19).

They listen to the news on the radio as they continue driving home. Julian feels like everything is falling apart because he missed out on the luck from catching the big fish.

The next morning, Julian finds Bebo in the kitchen making breakfast. Julian asks Bebo what a revolution is, and Bebo tells him to ask his parents. Julian insists that he wants Bebo to explain it to him because his parents treat him like a child, while Bebo explains things as they are and treats him like an adult.

Bebo explains that a revolution is like making an omelet. He shows him the “before,” the uncracked eggs that represent “all the important things that everybody needs: schools, houses, food, and money” (22). Then, during the revolution, the eggs get cracked and destroyed; he explains that this is the part they saw the previous night. After, he says, people make an omelet from the cracked eggs: “some people are going to love the new omelet, and some people are going to hate it. But…once you crack those eggs, nothing stays the same” (23). Julian notices that Bebo is crying, but Bebo claims it is because of the onions he is chopping.

When Julian and his family have breakfast with the Garcias that morning, Alida announces that this will be their last breakfast together because they are leaving Cuba for Miami the next day due to the revolution and political uncertainty.

The next morning, an army truck arrives at the Garcias’ home as Julian and his brothers watch from their roof. A small woman and three soldiers are there to inspect the Garcias’ belongings and make sure they do not leave with more than their allowed one suitcase each. Alquilino notes that the small woman is the same person who moved in across the street where their neighbor Kiko used to live. After Kiko left the country, she and her husband and son moved in; her son is part of the government’s youth brigade. Gordo believes they are government spies.

As the woman inspects Angelita’s suitcase and demands Angelita hand over the necklace Alquilino gave her for her birthday, Angelita rebelliously tosses the necklace against the wall. The woman is angry but laughs it off. After the Garcia’s leave, the woman calls them “worms,” the label applied to people who flee. The soldiers seal and stamp the empty house to indicate that no one is allowed inside anymore.

Suddenly, Julian’s mother remembers that Alida never returned her gold swallow pin from New Year’s Eve. Papi begs the woman to search the Garcias’ house for it, but she refuses and reminds him that if anyone is caught in a sealed home, they will be shot or put in jail.

Later, Julian goes to the gas station with Bebo, and along the way, he sees people in lines for food, supplies, gasoline, and passports. He also sees a line of parents getting passports for their children to send them away alone, and he struggles to understand why a parent would do this.

Julian and his family are watching Cuba’s new leader, Fidel Castro, on television. He has replaced normal television programming with his “lecturing, dictating, wagging his finger at everybody” (30). His mother angrily laments the loss of her favorite programs and the gold swallow pin her grandmother gave her. Julian notices that Alquilino is thinking carefully about something. He claims his brothers are similar but different; Gordo is more impulsive, while Alquilino likes to think things over prior to acting. Suddenly, Alquilino announces to Gordo that he has a plan, and they retreat to the roof. Julian follows.

Every day, more families flee the country and soldiers seal more homes. Gordo and Alquilino have been sneaking into empty homes to explore. One day, Julian overhears them planning to break into the Garcias’ home to search for the swallow pin. He convinces them to let him go with them.

That night, as they are searching the home, they realize the woman’s military youth son has followed them and is trying to catch them. As they are preparing to run back home, Julian remembers there is a secret hiding place in the pantry where he is sure the pin is. Gordo stays to check the pantry, while Alquilino pulls Julian out. As they return home, they notice the woman and her son are there, having accused the boys of trespassing. The woman wants to check the boys’ room to prove they are not there. Julian and Alquilino climb in through their bedroom window, Julian fashions a body of pillows in Gordo’s bed, and they are in bed in time for the woman and their parents to believe they have been sleeping all night. After they leave, Gordo comes in through the window with the pin he found in the pantry.

The next day, Julian places the pin in his mother’s jewelry dish. In the kitchen, Bebo reveals that the government is sending him to engineering school after he did well on a test the woman encouraged him to take. Julian declares that he will miss him, but Bebo assures Julian that he will be fine because he has taught Julian how to think critically. Bebo also leaves him with advice to not fall into his brothers’ shadows and “find [his] own game” (40). Julian does not understand, so he climbs his favorite almond tree to think.

As Julian sits in the almond tree, Gordo stops by and climbs up. He takes a handful of almonds and throws them at a street sign. Then Gordo spots the woman’s son, whom he calls “the snitch” (42). Despite Julian’s warnings, Gordo aims and fires an almond at the boy’s forehead. The boy cries and runs home. Julian scolds Gordo, but Gordo accuses Julian of being “hopeless” and not knowing how things work in the “real world” (43). Julian declares that he does not want to be like Gordo.

That night, Julian’s mother makes pork chops for dinner, having traded her expensive shoes for them. Suddenly, the woman and her son burst into the dining room. She accuses one of the boys of hitting her son in the head. She then claims that her son is sure he saw Gordo trespassing in the Garcias’ home the other night and assures them that she has filed charges against him. When she sees the pork chops, she reminds the family that it is against the law to buy black market food items. Because of this, she plans to have the boys sent to a government reform school to “start their reeducation” (46).

When the woman leaves, Julian’s mother explains that the woman indeed has the power to send them to the school. She has heard on the radio that the children leave to cut sugarcane, then to a Russian school, and when they come back, they are “different” (47). To prevent this, Julian’s mother reveals she has already started the process of sending the boys away to the United States where there are camps for Cuban kids to wait until their parents can join them.

Later, as the boys are packing, their mother assures them everything will be fine. She has given her gold swallow pin to Julian to put in a secret compartment of the one suitcase. She presents Julian with a big plate containing a name tag that reads “Pedro Pan, please take care of my son Julian. God Bless You.” This is a reference to Operation Pedro Pan, a covert government operation between Cuba and the United States that sponsored young Cuban children to escape Castro’s regime from 1960-1962. Julian refuses to wear the name tag, but he later agrees to put it on at the airport. He accidentally shatters the plate, wraps the pieces in a handkerchief, and puts them in his pocket.

At the airport, the guards decide to search Julian alone in another room. He worries they will find the hidden compartment in his suitcase, so he yells for his parents. The guards then turn their attention to the boys’ passports, which have been forged, as Julian waits in the hallway. We learn that Gordo’s real name is Eduardo. When the guards are satisfied, the family runs to catch the plane.

Before the boys board, their father hands Julian a box of cigars, which he deems as valuable as money. He assures Julian that this is not his fault for losing the fish on New Year’s Eve. On the plane, Julian watches as the Havana sky fades into the clouds.

The boys land in Miami. Julian notes how the sky looks similar to Havana but also different. As soon as they walk off the plane, a man gives Julian $10 for the box of cigars and welcomes them to America. Alquilino says the cigars will go to President Kennedy. He also informs them that a man in a yellow hat named Jorge will pick them up from the airport and take them to the camp. After watching other people have happy reunions with their loved ones, they finally spot Jorge, and he also welcomes them to America.