Eduardo F. Calcines was a child of Fidel Castro's Cuba; he was just three years old when Castro came to power in January 1959. After that, everything changed for his family and his country. When he was ten, his family applied for an exit visa to emigrate to America and he was ridiculed by his schoolmates and even his teachers for being a traitor to his country. But even worse, his father was sent to an agricultural reform camp to do hard labor as punishment for daring to want to leave Cuba. During the years to come, as he grew up in Glorytown, a neighborhood in the city of Cienfuegos, Eduardo hoped with all his might that their exit visa would be granted before he turned fifteen, the age at which he would be drafted into the army. In this absorbing memoir, by turns humorous and heartbreaking, Eduardo Calcines recounts his boyhood and chronicles the conditions that led him to wish above all else to leave behind his beloved extended family and his home for a chance at a better future.


Eduardo F. Calcines 這位小男孩，生活在菲德爾．卡斯楚執政下的古巴。卡斯楚在 1959 年 1 月執政後，Eduardo的家庭以及整個國家都遭逢巨變。Eduardo 10 歲時，全家申請出境簽證想移民到美國，但是同學，甚至老師都嘲笑他是叛徒。更糟的是，他的父親因膽敢離開古巴而遭受懲罰，被流放到農業勞改營裡作苦工。這些年來，Eduardo在西恩富戈斯市裡的葛羅瑞鎮長大，真心盼望在 15 歲之前，全家能獲准得到出境簽證，否則到時候他就必須受徵召進入古巴軍隊。本自傳不只引人入勝、詼諧幽默，更有令人心碎嘆息的情節，作者細數童年往事，更訴說自己最深切的渴望，為此他可以遠赴異地、離開家人，只為了一個迎向美好未來的機會。