Mirta Ojito, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, came to UCF Oct. 16 and delved into how her critically acclaimed book, Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus, came to be.
"Having lost my country, I wanted to make sure I didn't lose myself," Mirta Ojito said to UCF students, faculty and staff in the UCF Arena.
Ojito came to America from Cuba in 1980 and has since preserved her determination and cultural identity with her reporting and writing.
"It was the book I wanted to read, and couldn't find anywhere," Ojito said.
Finding Mañana was chosen by the UCF Department of English as required reading for its Composition I courses, and they, along with the Hispanic American Student Association, were the ones to bring Ojito to campus.
The memoir describes Ojito's experience in 1980 as a 16-year-old Cuban girl brought to the U.S. on a boat called the Mañana.
Finding Mañana is classified as a memoir, but has been referred to as a novel and even an autobiography.
Jose B. Fernandez, dean of the arts and humanities department, introduced Ojito after relaying his interpretation of the book.
"I like to think of it as a Cuban epic written in prose," Fernandez said.
Ojito focused her memoir on the 1980 Mariel boatlift, which resulted in over 125,000 Cubans being brought to America from the port of Mariel, Cuba, over a course of about seven months.
Most of the Cubans ended up in South Florida, including Ojito, who arrived on May 11 aboard the Mañana.
Cubans, including Ojito's family, were leaving Cuba because they did not like living under the power of Dictator Fidel Castro. They did not support what Castro considered the revolution in Cuba and therefore were not loyal in his eyes.
As a result, in May 1980, Castro allowed disloyal Cubans to board ships headed for the U.S. at the port of Mariel.
According to Ojito, what sparked the creation of Finding Mañana was an article in The New Yorker.
"I read The New Yorker every week," Ojito said.
The article was about a woman with a prosthetic arm. The story unexpectedly resulted in Ojito seeing a mental image of the captain of the Mañana, who she remembered had a fake arm.
"I should find the captain, I thought, if only to thank him," Ojito said in her book.
From there, Ojito began her journey to find the captain of the Mañana, and others who had been there when she came to America. Along the way, the idea of a book took hold, and her memoir was the outcome.
After finding and interviewing other Cubans who had been on the Mañana, Ojito's most difficult search yet was for the captain, Mike Howell. Ojito addressed how she had put ads in boating magazines, and even spoke to a private investigator to try and find Howell.
Her search for Howell was unsuccessful, until it was brought to her attention that boats are listed.
After narrowing down which boat had been the Mañana she had traveled on, Ojito found Howell. She contacted him, and Ojito had what she considered a long conversation, rather than an interview, with Howell.
"It was just a beautiful, wonderful moment," Ojito said.
"What it took for me to write this," Ojito said, "was memory - sensory memory - and reporting."
Because Ojito felt that she, as well as those she interviewed, could not remember exact words said in 1980, quotation marks were not used in Finding Mañana. However, Ojito makes it clear that everything in her book is true, as far as she knows.
From the reporter angle, Ojito also used newspaper articles to gather information for her book.
"I learned the importance of newspapers," Ojito said. "If the reporting is wrong, then my book is wrong."
In the end, Ojito wrote a memoir in the style of a reporter. She said it is probably an uncommon style, but that is just how she happened to write it.
As a journalist, Ojito also expressed her feelings about current events in Cuba, as well as the impact of her book.
Recently, Fidel Castro became ill and turned power over to his brother. A student from the audience asked Ojito how she felt Cuba will be affected when Castro dies.
"The end of Fidel is not the end of the regime," Ojito said, pointing out that it is Fidel's brother who has power now. "I don't think a democracy will enter Cuba any time soon."
Ojito feels that her book will connect with many of those who experienced leaving Cuba in 1980. "It was a very traumatic time for a lot of people, especially the children," Ojito said.
What Finding Mañana is really about, explained Ojito, is regular people.
"Regular people change history," Ojito said. "I knew I could recreate history, and I did."
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