52 pages • 1 hour read
Mirta OjitoFinding Mañana
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Discuss the author’s representation of political repression in Castro’s Cuba. Which of the Castro regime’s practices and policies impacted Ojito and her family? Why did the Ojitos and other families feel that emigration was their only option?
Discuss the author’s representation of Bernardo Benes. Who was he, and why was he so important to both Cuban and Cuban American politics in the decades following the revolution?
What kind of experiences did the author have upon immigrating to the United States? What was life in exile like for her, and how did she find a new sense of stability and identity in Miami?
How did family networks of Cubans in Cuba and South Florida maintain connections despite physical distance and difficulty staying in communication with one another? What was the social, political, and financial impact of these cross-diaspora family networks?
What are gusanos? Why is this term important, and how did Ojito and her family feel about this label?
What are the politics of the term “Marielito”? How were the Mariel refugees perceived in the early versus the late days of the boatlift, and how did the author and other Mariel refugees work to reclaim or move past the stigma of being labeled a Marielito?
Who was Hector Sanyustiz? How did the Cuban Revolution shape his life, and why did he decide to emigrate? Why do you think that the author chose to include his story in a memoir of her own experiences in the Mariel boatlift?
The author includes the personal histories of several people other than herself. Why did she make this choice, and what impact does it have on her narrative?
How does the author’s depiction of the Mariel boatlift compare to historical documents written about the event? What impact does Mirta Ojito’s story have on the reader’s understanding of the human side of the Mariel boatlift?
How did Castro try to “control the narrative” of the Mariel boatlift? What impact did his public statements about the Mariel refugees have on public perception of them? How does this speak to the way that the author describes Castro’s ruling style?
