Bay View member and Cuban refugee Armando Gonzalez-Perez will share his personal experiences in the final days of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship in Cuba, and in the anguish, desperation, disillusionment and impotence brought about by Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution in 1959. 

The class will focus on Gonzalez-Perez’s book Stolen Dreams, a fictional account of a Cuban baseball player caught up in the political turmoil. Both the book and the class will explain why thousands of Cubans like Gonzalez-Perez risked their lives to pursue freedom.

About the Instructor: Amando Gonzalez-Perez is an emeritus professor at Marquette University, where he taught for many years in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Gonzalez-Perez, who received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, co-edited the literary journal Caribe:  revista de cultura y literatura for fifteen years.  He has published a number of essential books and articles in the field of Afro-Hispanic research. In addition to Stolen Dreams, he is also author of the book Chance: From Turkey With Love.