>> Cecilia Cackley:
Good morning, everyone.
Welcome to the Library of
Congress National Book Festival.
This session is
"Tía Fortuna's New Home,
A Jewish Cuban Journey"
with Ruth Behar.
My name is Cecilia Cackley.
I'll be the moderator for this
session.
I am a children's book buyer
with First Book a local nonprofit
that provides access to new
children's books for free or
very little money to teachers
at Title I schools and people
who work in programs that serve
children and families in need
all across the country.
If you're interested in our
work, you can find out more at
our website
FBMarketplace.org.
We also have a table here which
is kind of over in that
direction. If you have any
questions.
I'm thrilled to be moderating
this session today.
We are so grateful to our
sponsors for making this program
possible. Just a couple of
housekeeping notes,
You are going to hear our
fabulous picture book read by
the author herself.
And afterwards, we will have
time for Q and A.
There are two microphones in
each of the aisles, so be
thinking about what questions
you have for the author. If you
want to know about her
inspiration for the book, how it
was written, the stories behind
it, or anything else about
being an author.
Now is your chance to get an
answer.
And following this program,
Ruth will sign copies of her
book over in the autograph
booths at 11:30.
All right. I am so, so pleased
to welcome
Ruth Behar to the
Library of Congress
National Book Festival.
Ruth is the acclaimed author of
many fiction and nonfiction
books for adults and children.
Her debut children's novel,
"Lucky Broken Girl", won the
Pura Belpré author award,
she is also the author 
of "Letters from Home"
and "Tía Fortuna's New Home",
the book we're celebrating today.
Ruth was born in Havana, Cuba.
She grew up in New York and has
lived and worked in Spain and
Mexico.
But today calls Ann Arbor,
Michigan, home.
Please welcome Ruth Behar.
[Applause]
>> Cecilia Cackley:
So you don't need to be there--
>> Ruth Behar:
Oh, that's true.
>> Cecilia Cackley:
You can go all the way.
>> Ruth Behar:
And here's the clicker.
Yeah. And there it is on that
side.
>> Cecilia Cackley: So you might 
want to go over--
Oh okay sorry--
>> Ruth Behar: Okay.
Great.
Hi, everyone. How are you?
It's so great to be here.
Hello. Hello. Hello.
Well, I'm so glad to present my
book "Tía Fortuna's New Home"
This is my first time at the
National Book Festival, and I'm
so glad to be here with my
first picture book as well.
And so I'll be reading the
book. And I want to show you
before I read it,
for those of you that haven't
seen the book yet, it has
a really beautiful design and
beautiful artwork by
Devon Holzwarth.
And when you open up the book,
you see that it's a suitcase,
a "maleta", right?
So it's a really special
design.
And the suitcase has a lot to
do with the story and with the
search for home, Tía Fortuna's
new home.
So I'm going to read to you.
It also has some beautiful
artwork here.
When you open up the book and
we can talk about these symbols
afterwards if you're interested.
So let me get started. And the book 
is in English and Spanish,
and I'm going to read it in English,
but I'll read the last two pages
in Spanish at the end, so you
can also hear it in Spanish.
And so when I was writing this
book, I was just writing it
because I wanted to write a
picture book for the first time.
But I didn't know that I was
going to become an abuelita, a
grandmother. And as the book
was about to go off to the
publisher, I became a
grandmother and I was able to
also dedicate the book to my
granddaughter as well as to my
abuela. And this book is an
honor and inspired by a very
favorite tía of mine, a very
lovely aunt of mine who lives in
Miami Beach.
And I'm so thrilled that my
family is here, my husband is
here, and my cousins [Applause]
The daughter of my favorite aunt 
and her grandson, are here with us
today in the audience.
So, okay.
"Tía Fortuna's New Home"
Let's get started.
"I love to visit my Tía Fortuna
in her little pink casita at the
Seaway. When my auntie was
young, she lived on the other
side of the sea in Havana.
From her rooftop she waved to
the ships as they came into the
harbor.
But one day Tía had to
leave with nothing but a
suitcase of old photographs and
the mezuzah that hung on her
door post and a key to a home
gone forever.
She felt lost and wept many
tears until she found her casita
at the Seaway.
She has lived there
for years and years.
Today is Tía's last day at the
Seaway.
"Why do you have to move Tía?"
"Bulldozers are coming to tear
down the Seaway. A fancy hotel
will be built here."
"What will happen to your
little pink casita?"
"My home will be a memory." Tía
touches the key on her necklace.
"Like the home I left in
Havana.
A memory." "But I want to visit
you at the Seaway."
"Today and next Friday.
And always.
"Estrella, it's time to say
goodbye and wish for Mazal Bueno".
Tía gives me a hug and her 
lucky eye bracelets tinkle
and twinkle.
"Come, Estrella, vamos a
saludarla playa.
The beach wants to greet you."
We kick off our sandals and
breathe in the salty air.
"Look at that bright blue sky.
The sun gives everyone its
light for free."El sol.
El sol. El sol.
The sea roars all night.
And now it's tickling our feet.
El mar. El mar.
El mar.
Tía sinks down into the sand.
"What a pretty casita you're
making," she says.
How can Tía be happy on such a
sad day?
"Tomorrow the sandcastle will
be gone.
And so will we!"
"It's not mañana yet, Estrella.
Let's enjoy today."
When we get back to the Seaway,
Tía serves me warm borekas.
"How do you make borekas taste
so delicious, Tía?"
"I'll tell you my secret.
I fill them
with potatoes and cheese.
And esperanza.
"How can borekas be filled
with hope?"
"Because they are the food of
your grandfather's grandfather's
grandfathers, and your grandmother's
grandmother's grandmothers.
They took them from Spain to
Turkey to Cuba."
"Now we eat them here in
Miami." Tía smiles.
"We come from people who found
hope wherever they went."
"Esperanza, esperanza,
esperanza," I say aloud,
and I help Tía pack a box with
the rest of the borekas.
"Is that all you're bringing
with you?" I ask.
"I don't need much," she
replies.
"I have so many memories in my
suitcase right here," and she
points to her head.
Mommy arrives and she's in a
rush.
"Wait," Tía says.
"I need my good luck mezuzah."
But Tía's mezuzah is so crusted
with sea salt, it won't budge.
Finally, Tía asks "Mezuzah,
would you please come with me?"
And it pops out.
Tía locks the door and slips
the big brass key in her
pocket.
"Goodbye, mis palmeras."
"Goodbye," she whispers.
Palm trees swooshing
answer her:
"Adios, adios, adios."
We leave the sea behind and
drive toward the banyan trees
and the butterflies.
At the front
gate, I feel Tía's hand tremble.
"Tía, where are we?"
"La casa de los viejitos,"
Tía says.
She leans against
a banyan tree and runs her
hands along its rooty trunk.
"Hello. Glad to meet you.
"You've been here a while,
haven't you?"
The banyan tree nods its head
at Tía and says,"Hola, hola, hola."
We step inside and Tía says,
"Let's share the borekas with
everyone we meet." Soon,
they're all saying "Thank you."
"Thanks. Arigato.
A danke.
Obrigado.
Shukran. Gracias.
Merci. Todah." 
"You're welcome," Tía replies,
and makes new friends right away.
The lady next door to Tía's
room hears us speaking Spanish.
"I once lived by the Port of
Havana and waved to the ships,"
she says.
"So did I," Tía tells her.
"I'm glad we'll be neighbors."
They laugh together like old
friends.
Mommy carries in a suitcase.
I help nail the salty mezuzah to
the new door post.
I arrange
Tía's pillows on her bed.
"Here's a good place for your
photo albums," I say to Tía.
"Gracias, Estrellita.
It's starting to feel
so cozy already," Tía says.
She gives me a hug and her
lucky eye bracelets
tinkle and twinkle.
"Tía, next time I visit, we'll
sit in the garden and watch the
butterflies dance."
"Mashallah, God willing,"
Tía says.
"Until then, here's
a gift for you, Estrella."
She puts something cool in my
palm and squeezes my hand around it.
The key to the sea way.
"Oh, look, Tía. I'll carry it
with me always." And as soon as
I slip the big brass key around
my neck, I hear the sea
laughing and smell the salty air.
I can see the grandmothers and
grandfathers from long ago
carrying burekas from Spain to
Turkey to Cuba to Miami.
At the front gate, we watched
the night spread its blanket
over the world.
"Look, Tía, the first star is
lighting up the darkness
everywhere."
"Estrella. Estrella.
Estrella,"
she replies.
Tía gives me a goodbye hug.
And as I turn down the path,
I whisper "Mazal Bueno"
into the starry night."
Thank you so much. [Applause]
>> Ruth Behar: Just read the
Spanish?
Do you want to hear
the last page of the Spanish?
Because it's also in Spanish:
"El Nuevo Hogar de Tía Fortuna"
I'll just read those last two
pages so you can hear the
Spanish.
So. And if you want to go back to 
this page, the before,
next to the last page.
There. Okay. "En la puerta principal
vemos como la noche extiende su manto
sobre el mundo.
"Mira, Tía. La primera estrella
ilumina la oscuridad en todas
partes."
"Estrella! Estrella!
Estrella!" repite ella.
Tía me da un abrazo de
despedida.
Y al doblar por el sendero,
susurro "Mazal Bueno,"
bajo la noche estrellada."
Gracias.
>> Cecilia Cackley:
All right.
Okay. So a reminder, if you
have a question, please come to one of
the microphones.
We have our volunteers who are very 
helpfully waving to show you
where they are. Children and adults,
Any one may ask a question.
Okay. It looks like we have our
first question over there.
>> Member of Audience:
How did you design the cover?
>> Ruth Behar:
How did I design the cover?
Well! I got, I've got.
Oh, I've got it behind me or?
>> Cecilia Cackley:
No, you've got the-
>> Ruth Behar: Yeah. So I worked with 
a wonderful artist named
Devon Holzwarth.
So she was the
one that designed the cover and
designed all the beautiful art
that you have seen.
She received the the story and
then was inspired to create
these beautiful pictures.
And as she was creating them,
she shared the pictures with me
to see if I was happy with them.
And I was. And we had different
ideas for the cover.
But we really loved this one
because we see how close
Tía Fortuna and Estrella are in
this picture.
So. So she came up with the
beautiful pictures and I
insisted on a couple of things,
like Tía Fortuna wears a lot of
these bracelets that I wear
because it's very common that
the ladies wear these bracelets
in the community.
So I said, "Well, she can't just
wear one bracelet just to have a
few of these good luck
bracelets."
So, so I gave the artist some
ideas, I sent her some pictures,
a lot of the things that you
see here.
Also, I sent her some pictures.
She wanted to know what borekas
looked like, what these
delicious empanadas look like.
So I sent her pictures and I
sent her pictures of the bracelets
and the hamsas.
So a lot of things,
I sent pictures.
And then from that, she was
inspired to create the art for
the book. So thank you for that
question.
>> Member of Audience:
I wanted to know how you made
such poetic words and the
story.
>> Ruth Behar: How do I use such 
poetic words in the story? Thank you.
>> Member of Audience: Yeah.
And--
And also mix it with Spanish.
>> Ruth Behar:
Yeah.
Thank you for that. That's a
great question.
Well, I really love poetry.
Do any of you like poetry here
in this room today?
Yeah. Oh, wow.
Yes, yes, yes. So I love
poetry.
Oh, thank you. I love poetry.
I love poems. I love poetic
words.
So I tried to write the story
in a very poetic way, but also
in a way that was very
understandable and that you
could enjoy it as a story.
And since I am Cuban born and
grew up speaking Spanish at
home with my family and still do
with my family, with my
parents, we still speak Spanish.
It was very important for me to
include Spanish in the story as
well. So I don't say little
house, I say casita.
And so then if you already know
Spanish, it's like, "Great,
there's a word in Spanish here." 
And then if you don't know
Spanish, you might learn a new
word like casita.
So everybody gets to really
enjoy that.
So, so that's why I like to mix
in a little Spanish.
And there is a glossary, a
glosario at the end of the book.
So the words, some of the words
that you may not know, because
I use words in different
languages, there's Spanish words
but there's also words in
Hebrew, there's words of Japanese,
Obrigado, for thank you.
There's different words in the book.
So that is also in the
glossary.
So you can learn some new words
when you read this book.
And I thought that would be fun.
Thank you for your question.
>> Member of Audience:
How did you learn Spanish?
>> Ruth Behar:
I learned Spanish from the time
I was born, because I was born
in Cuba, which is a country
where people speak Spanish.
So I heard Spanish very, 
very young.
And then I came to the
United States.
We came as immigrants when I
was five years old.
We moved to New York, my
parents and I and my brother and
the family in general.
And so everybody continued to
speak Spanish because that was
their first language.
So I grew up hearing it.
And my grandparents, actually
my grandparents, my abuelos
on my father's side.
They spoke very
little English, so I had to be
school. I studied it all
through school and even in
college. I continued to teach,
to to study Spanish.
So I really love the language
and love holding on to it.
Thank you. Great questions.
>> Member of Audience:
How do you make the books?
>> Ruth Behar:
How did I make the book?
Thank you for that question.
Well, it all started
with a story.
So I had this idea.
So I have a real aunt in Miami Beach 
that I love very much,
and I wanted to honor her.
At the same time, I wanted to
create a story a little
different from her life as well.
And so I just started writing
this story and putting in all
these things that I love the
ocean, the beach,
the delicious borekas, and
just created this story.
And once I had the story, then
the publisher, who are the
people that publish books, that
create the books, print them.
The publisher found this
wonderful artist and the artist
made all the beautiful artwork
so that the book could be a
combination of a nice story and
beautiful art.
And that's how you create a book.
Thank you.
>> Member of Audience:
Hi.
Thank you so much for your work.
I'm first-- Excuse me,
Sorry. I'm first generation
Jewish. My mother was born
in Germany and had to leave
because of the Holocaust
And so that's a different history.
We have family in Argentina y
Uruguay, that went directly from
Europe to Latin America.
I believe your family arrived
from Turkey.
So I'm sort of
curious, what is the
Cuban Jewish experience?
What's the history of Jews in Cuba?
Because it's different than the
diaspora of Jews from Europe,
Western Europe.
>> Ruth Behar: Thank you.
Thank you for that question.
So that's a topic that I've
written a lot about and have
actually done research.
I'm also an anthropologist and
I wrote a book that's titled
"An Island Called Home".
And it's all about the story of
the Jews of Cuba.
And this is una
historia judía cubana o
Jewish Cuban history.
And actually, in my family,
there's two sides to my family.
My father's side is the side
that was from Turkey and is
Sephardic. So these are Jews
that descend from Spain.
So I fortunately inherited that
from my father's side of the
family. And my grandparents
immigrated from Turkey to Cuba
in the 1920s.
And so my father and his family
were born in Cuba.
But then my mother's family was
from Poland and Russia, so my
maternal grandparents had the
Eastern European background and
they also settled in Cuba in
the twenties and thirties.
They spoke Yiddish and my
father's family spoke Ladino,
the language that Sephardic
Jews speak. And so I grew up
with these two cultures.
And so in this book I wanted to
honor my father's side of the
family and the Sephardic
Turkish side.
But I have another book, a
middle grade novel called
"Letters from Cuba" that is all
about my mother's side of the
family and that migration.
So so people came from both
parts of Europe, and there were
many Jews that found refuge in
Cuba on the eve of
the Holocaust.
And this was true of my
mother's family.
They were able to get to Cuba just right 
before, a couple of years before
the Holocaust, and Cuba offered
them a home and a refuge.
So I feel very close to Cuba
because of that, because
that was the place where my
family found a home at a very
difficult time in the world.
So thank you for that question.
Thank you. >> Cecilia Cackley:
I think we have time
for just one more. One more.
>> Member of Audience:
I think a fantastic experience
here. What's one bit of advice?
I'm here with some young
writers here, that you have,
thinking back either to writing
your first book or that you
might have for them.
They're in middle and high school.
>> Ruth Behar: Yeah, thank you
for that question.
Well, I've been writing since I
was a kid.
I've always loved writing.
I kept a diary.
I don't know if any of you keep
diaries or a journal, but I had
one of those diaries. It was a
little red notebook with a key,
and I could open and close it
with a key.
So that's where I kept my
secret thoughts and feelings.
So I think keeping a diary or
journal is a really good way to
be thinking about ideas and
stories.
Also, I think what's really
important, and this book really
shows that, is to listen to
your elders, listen to their stories.
I was the kind of child that
loved to sit around with my
grandparents and ask them, "Oh,
you know, tell me your story.
Where are you from?
What was it
like when you were a child?"
So, I think listening is really
important and listening to other
people's stories really
inspires you to be a writer.
So I would say those two
things:
keeping a journal, writing
thoughts, ideas down, things
that catch your interest, and
then also paying attention,
listening to the stories of
others. That will inspire you
to tell stories about about the
world, really, and about the
other other people, and to
really create that that
compassion in your heart of
caring for others.
And that's what makes you 
a good writer. [Applause]
>> Ruth Behar: Thank you.
>> Cecilia Cackley: All right.
We're just about at time.
Do I have one more over here?
Okay, Last one real quick.
>> Member of Audience:
Thank you so much.
So I was wondering, given your
family history, do you see any
of yourself in the character of
Estrella?
>> Ruth Behar: Yes.
Thank you for that question.
So when I was writing this
book, I thought of myself as the
little girl, Estrella.
Thinking, "I'd like to be this
little girl and learn so much
about my traditions and my
culture and so on."
So, I was kind of putting myself
back like who I might have been
as a little girl of five years
old. But then as I got to the end of
the story and I realized I'm an
older person now, I thought
"I could be Tía Fortuna!"
You know, I'm not I'm not a
little girl anymore.
And so I kind of played 
both roles.
I feel as I was writing, I feel
at the beginning I was trying to
be the little girl and just
understand.
Here's my favorite tía.
She lives by the beach.
She has to give up this house
because it's going to be torn
down to build a hotel.
And what would that feel like
to be this girl who loves her
tía but also loves visiting her
at her little beach cottage.
And now she's she's got to go.
And this little girl has to
understand that sometimes we
lose one home, but then we gain
another home.
And what do we take when we go
from place to place?
So I put myself in Estrella's
position.
But towards the end of the
story, I thought, "Wait a minute,
I could be Tía Fortuna."
And then certainly once I
realized that I was now a
grandmother, I thought,
"No, now I'm like Tía Fortuna."
"Now I have to start
making the borekas." You know?
So, so, so I really played,
played both roles as, 
as I wrote.
I think when you write a story as a
writer, you put yourself in the shoes of
every character to be able to
get all of them to be as as
close to the heart as possible.
Yeah. Thank you.
>> Cecilia Cackley:
Another round of applause,
please, for Ruth Behar. 
[Applause]
>> Cecilia Cackley: Thank you all so much. 
You've been a great audience.
>> Ruth Behar: Thanks so much.
>> Cecilia Cackley: A reminder that Ruth 
will be signing her book at 11:30.
You can purchase it here
at the book sale.And everybody have 
an absolutely wonderful time
here at the National Book Festival.
Thank you
>> Ruth Behar:
Thank you so much.
Thank you.