Eduardo Santiago Tomorrow They Kiss

Tomorrow They Kiss

Eduardo Santiago

Back Bay, Jul 2006, $13.99

ISBN: 0316014125

The three women grew up in Palamagria, Cuba, but by 1967 they live in New Jersey. Everyday they ride the bus together to work at a Union City toy factory. Graciela is a single mother of two separated from her spouse; she dreams of true love just like she sees at night on telenovelas. Her mates egotistical Caridad and acerbic Imperio tell Graciela that telenovelas are fantasies and what she once had in Cuba with the town hunk is long gone; even as they hide the fact that they share her dream of the telenovelas coming true for them.

However, to everyone's amazement, the factory foreman, Mr. Barry O'Reilly seems to desire Graciela as he always looks at her and makes excuses to see her. Her bitter bus mates cannot believe the worst nightmare since Castro is about to happen to them. Graciela apparently will become Mrs. O'Reilly, which in capitalist America and communist Cuba denotes she is their boss.

This is a terrific timely with the immigration issue historical look at three Cuban expatriates struggling to survive in an alien land. Much of the tale is related by Graciela though the audience also obtains some first person accounts from her two amigas and other doll factory workers. The working conditions will stun readers while the additional insight into new Cuban-American community that located in the northeast provides a humorous at times poignant but also somewhat slow paced character study.

Harriet Klausner