The Lazarus Rumba

THE

Ernesto Mestre

PICADOR USA
New York

 

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Table of Contents

About the Author

Copyright Page

 

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This book was a long time in writing, and I am very grateful to the many without whose assistance and generosity I could not have finished it: for fellowships awarded during the time of writing, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and the Blue Mountain Center; for aid in establishing the cultural and historical background of Cuba, Tad Szulc's
Fidel: A Critical Portrait
(1986), Manuel Prieres's
Senderos de Rocío y Sal
(1991), Luis Manuel Núñez's
Santería
(1992), Gabriel García Márquez's essay, “Fidel—The Craft of the Word” (1991), and the works of Heberto Padilla, Reinaldo Arenas, and Guillermo Cabrera Infante; for their devotion to this novel, and their tireless efforts on its behalf, my agent Harold Schmidt, who read the bulky manuscript first and took it on, my old-fashioned editor Michael Denneny (there are few left like him), his assistants Sarah Rutigliano and Christina Prestia, also Robert Cloud, Lisa Shea, and Tom and Elaine Colchie.

A different kind of gratitude is reserved for my parents and the rest of my family, for their loving support, especially tía Cucha, for the bold example of her life, and Angela, because her name is so fitting; and for Bill Dante, whose love, kindness, and understanding during the writing of this novel are not forgotten.

Doña Adela
, mother to Alicia Lucientes

Alfonso
, a bodega manager

Anita
, servant at St. Catalina de Ricis Church, doer of spiders

Atila
, a blue-feathered fighting cock, a resurrector

Barba Roja
, rebel comandante, captured Guantánamo

Mr. Blank
, or
Mr. Dash
, a yanqui businessman, surname stolen

Carmen Canastas
, lover of the rebel Barba Roja, teller of tangled tales

Fidel Castro
, a university student, later el Líder

Charo
, captain of a leaky trawler

Doña Álvara Clarón
, a gallega, madam of the orange whorehouse

Miguel Córtez
, a mail carrier

Doña Paca Córtez
, a postmaster

Julio César Cruz
, rebel comandante, husband to Alicia Lucientes

Teresita Cruz
, daughter to Alicia Lucientes, illegitimate

Cuco, la Loca
, servant of Federico Sánchez

Luisito Cuzco
, a bartender and rumbero

Héctor Daluz
, an acrobat at the gypsy circus, cousin to Alicia Lucientes

Juanito Daluz
, his brother, also an acrobat

Juanito Daluz
, their father, husband to doña Edith Oregón

Gianni Denti
, an Italian journalist

Tomás de Aquino
, a bullmastiff

Father Jacinto de la Serna
, a professor at the Belén school, caretaker of the young Julio César

Father
, a comandante in a labor camp, a torture artist

Plácido Flores
, an undertaker

Paco Fortunato
, a blue-feathered cock, a hunk

Georgina the Manwoman
, a performer at the gypsy circus

Father Gonzalo
, monsignor of St. Catalina de Ricis Church

Pio Gorras
, an apothecary, rumored thief of organs

Delfina Gutiérrez
, the heroine of an introduced story, thief of bridal gowns

Richard Hadley
, a yanqui trawler captain

Humberto
, an architectural student, murdered

Maruja Irigoyen
, Joshua's mother, banisher of clocks

Brother Joaquín
, keeper of a Marist house

Josefa
, a madrina in the Valley of the Nightingales

Duchess Josefina
, a suicide, mother of four suicides

Joshua
, founder of the Colony of the Newer Man, rumored bastard child of Fidel Castro

Alicia Lucientes
, widow of Julio César Cruz, later a dissident

Marta Lucientes
, half sister of Alicia Lucientes through father's mistress, later a dissident

Teodoro Lucientes
, their father, husband to doña Adela, lover to Renata, la Blanquita

Luis el Catorce
, a tomcat

Margaret MacDougal
, a charitable yanqui

Marcos
, reformed counterrevolutionary in the Valley of the Nightingales

Mercedes
and
Beba
, brainy, bespectacled twins

Dr. Isidoro Antonio Mestre
, a well-meaning physician

Mingo
, a finquero

Elena Mulé
, a breeder of cocks

Yolanda Mulé
, her sister, mother to Julio César Cruz

Ñaña
, a halfwit

Doña Edith Oregon
, mother to Héctor and Juanito, wife of Juanito Daluz

Perdita
, a laundress

Mongo Pérez
, last survivor of the village of suicides, maker of snow

Pucha
, leader of CDR in Guantánamo, later a dissident

Armando Quiñón
, a photographer

Renata, la Blanquita
, mistress to Teodoro, mother of Marta Lucientes

Federico Sánchez
, a comandante in a labor camp, admirer of Héctor

Doña Sánchez
, his mother

Roque San Martín
, a bakery administrator

Yéyé San Martín
, his wife

Benicia San Martín
, their daughter, la reina de los quince

Señor Sariel
, an old master at the gypsy circus, later master to Héctor and Juanito