"The Red Umbrella" by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

In The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, the life of a fourteen-year-old Cuban girl named Lucia Alvarez is drastically changed when soldiers of the communist revolution enter into her village and begin to take over. Despite her parents' attempts to maintain normalcy and keep certain liberties intact, the revolution only grows more oppressive and dangerous, leading them to make an incredibly difficult decision. In order to protect Lucia and her seven-year-old brother Frankie, her parents choose to send their children to the U.S., where they are placed in a foster home with an elderly couple, the Baxters, in Grand Island, Nebraska. With only a little English under their belts and the slight knowledge they have acquired through the media about U.S. culture, Lucia and Frankie must adapt to life in the U.S. without the comfort of their parents' physical presence.

First of all, I just want to say that I really enjoyed this book and can definitely see myself using it in a classroom. It hits on many great themes and depicts Cuba's history in an interesting, adolescent-friendly way. One of the aspects of the book that I think will be the most meaningful for our students is the way Gonzalez illustrates the adolescent experience in a general sense. When I was an undergraduate, I took an Educational Psychology class that was on Adolescent Development and in reading this book, I was pleased and surprised to see how many areas that Gonzalez highlighted as part of Lucia's adolescent experience. Particularly, Gonzalez spends a lot of time exploring Lucia's desire not to be treated like a little girl and to be independent and free from her parents' rules. This longing for autonomy is prevalent for any adolescent, and so I think it will make Lucia as a character that our students can relate to easily. Furthermore, I think Lucia's desire for independence is mirrored beautifully with the text's study of how Cubans like Lucia's parents wanted independence from the communist regime.

Another area of adolescent development that Gonzalez stresses in the novel is a teen's desire to fit in and belong. In both Cuba and the U.S., Lucia ventures to blend in and make friends by doing what is popular among her peers, like wearing certain clothes and using specific makeup. Given the fact that the communist revolution in Cuba during the early 1960s depended largely on adolescent groups for recruiting and spreading the message that communism is "right" and capitalism is "wrong," I think the theme of conformity and belonging are particularly interesting to discuss. I think this novel provides a great way to discuss politics with our students in a way that makes them question the roles that they themselves play in politics as adolescents.

Lastly, because the novel deals with being forced to grow up quickly and losing innocence in that process, I think it would be really great to group this novel with others that depict how political forces require adolescents to assume responsibility before they should have to take it on. Some good books to group with it may include The Book Thief or Night.