Lion Island: Cuba's Warrior of Words
4/5
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About this ebook
Asia, Africa, Europe—Antonio Chuffat’s ancestors clashed and blended on the beautiful island of Cuba. Yet for most Cubans in the nineteenth century, life is anything but beautiful. The country is fighting for freedom from Spain. Enslaved Africans and near-enslaved Chinese indentured servants are forced to work long, backbreaking hours in the fields.
So Antonio feels lucky to have found a good job as a messenger, where his richly blended cultural background is an asset. Through his work he meets Wing, a young Chinese fruit seller who barely escaped the anti-Asian riots in San Francisco, and his sister Fan, a talented singer. With injustice all around them, the three friends are determined to prove that violence is not the only way to gain liberty.
Margarita Engle
Margarita Engle is the Cuban American author of many books including the verse novels Rima’s Rebellion; Your Heart, My Sky; With a Star in My Hand; The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner; and The Lightning Dreamer. Her verse memoirs include Soaring Earth and Enchanted Air, which received the Pura Belpré Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, and was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, among others. Her picture books include Drum Dream Girl, Dancing Hands, and The Flying Girl. Visit her at MargaritaEngle.com.
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Reviews for Lion Island
10 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I'm not a huge fan of novels in verse, but this is a wonderful presentation about a part of history I knew nothing about, so I found it pretty fascinating. I was a little troubled by the multiple viewpoints -- the combination of that and the very short poems made the book feel more like a skimmed precis of a volatile time than a story I could really sink my teeth into. Great for reluctant readers, though.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oh no...Engle says this is the last of this quasi-series about the struggle to end forced labor in Cuba. So sad to see its end, but I look forward to reading her next endeavor.
Book preview
Lion Island - Margarita Engle
Running with Words
ANTONIO CHUFFAT
Age 12
Year of the Goat
1871
Carrying Words
The arrival of los californios
changed everything.
School.
Work.
Hope.
All are mine, now that I have a job
delivering mysterious messages
for Señor Tung Kong Lam from Shanghai,
who fled to Cuba after only one year
in San Francisco.
California’s violence must be dragon-fierce
to make so many refugees seek new homes
on this island
of war.
Shaped by Words
My ancestors were born
in Asia, Africa, and Europe,
but sometimes I feel like a bird
that has migrated across the vast ocean
to this one
small island,
as if I am
shrinking.
I don’t know my africana mother’s language.
I hardly even know her enslaved relatives.
I only know the chino half of my family.
Teachers call me a child of three worlds,
but I feel like a creature of three words:
Freedom.
Liberty.
Hope.
Craving Words
I was terrified when my father
brought me to this busy city of La Habana
from our quiet village.
He left me alone at a school
called el Colegio para Desamparados
de la Raza de Color—
the School for Unprotected Ones
of the Race of Color—
where I am only one of many
part-African children.
Most are orphans, abandoned, unwanted,
cast out like trash,
but I am here only because
my father wants me to learn proper Spanish
instead of blending it with his native language,
the Cantonese of southern China,
a huge country that I’ve never seen
and can barely imagine,
so accustomed am I
to this small island’s
mixture
of thoughts
and tongues.
Lion Men, Peacock Men, a Battle of Words
The messages I carry for Señor Lam
go to businessmen, diplomats, and soldiers
from two empires.
Spain’s soldiers are familiar to me,
but until so recently, I lived in the little village
of Jovellanos, where I never saw imperial China’s
regal visitors.
Military leaders from Peking wear sleek golden lions
embroidered on their chests like roaring hearts.
Soldiers of lower rank are marked by tigers, panthers,
or leopards.
But the most powerful symbols belong to diplomats—
men of words, whose silk robes are embroidered
with shimmering peacocks, long-legged storks,
or graceful
white herons.
Even a button can have meaning.
Red, pink, blue, clear crystal, brown clay.
Each hue grants a diplomat
the authority to settle
certain types
of arguments.
Whenever I hover in the corner of a fancy room,
awaiting a written reply that I can carry back
to my busy employer, I notice the way soldiers
always yield to civil officials.
These peacock-decorated peacemakers
are more respected
than growling-lion
military heroes.
Dream Words
When I close my eyes late at night
after school and work,
the comfort of sleep
does not
find me.
All I see is a dreamlike parade of beasts,
snarling and shrieking,
while dignified winged beings
quietly explain their POWERFUL
opinions.
Will anyone ever
listen
to me?
What would I say if they did?
Will I grow up to be a roaring lion-soldier
or a calmly speaking
diplomat-bird?
Weapon Words
POWER is a word that binds me in its spell
of fiery strength.
POWER allows Spain to rule Cuba.
POWER keeps africano slaves
and indentured chinos
in chains.
But I am free-born, working, studying,
and listening to Señor Lam
as he speaks of democracy. . . .
One man,
one vote!
Imagine having choices
instead of
FEARS.
Words Are Possibilities
During mornings at school, I recite Spanish
verb forms, but my afternoons are spent racing
with urgent notes written in Chinese characters.
Each message wrapped
in the warmth of my hand
feels