Book Review - The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Lucia has been looking forward to her first dance forever. So it's a huge relief when her mom actually lets her attend it, especially given everything that's been going on lately.  It's 1961, two years after the communist revolution in Cuba, and Lucia and her family are finally seeing the changes in their neighborhood: so many soldiers that Lucia's mom won't let her and her younger brother leave the house alone and their doctor, murdered and hung on a tree in the park as an "example." But even the dance becomes a disaster, as everyone from her crush Manuel to her best friend Ivette is so gung-ho about the revolution. When someone betrays Lucia's parents, they find they have no other choice for their children but to send them to the United States, hoping to follow soon after with exit visas of their own.

Debut author Christina Diaz Gonzalez has crafted a harrowing story, based on true events during what became known as Operation Pedro Pan, which brought over 14,000 unaccompanied minors from Cuba to the United States. Lucia's struggles are so real, from the anxieties of leaving everything she knows behind, adjusting to life in an extremely foreign place (Nebraska), and watching her closest friendship slip away. This was the perfect read for the bum mood I found myself in yesterday. It absolutely transported me to another time and place, with the vivid descriptions of Cuba and spot-on 1960's dialogue.  Gonzalez is an author to watch!