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Reviewed by:
  • The Surrender Tree
  • Deborah Stevenson
Engle, Margarita; The Surrender Tree;. Holt, 2008; [176p] ISBN 978-0-8050-8674-4 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12

Author of The Poet Slave of Cuba (BCCB 7/06), Engle here turns her poetic hand to more recent Cuban history, tracing the intra-island rebellions and colonial wars of the latter half of the nineteenth century through a small group of focal characters, most of them real historical figures. The protagonist is Rosa la Bayamesa, a slave with knowledge of herbs and healing, who as a child tends recaptured slaves for her plantation owner; after she is manumitted in 1868 (a freedom not recognized by Spain), she joins the rebel forces in the hills, caring for refugees and wounded fighters. With her is her husband and fellow nurse, José; against her is General Weyler, the military governor of Cuba, and "Lieutenant Death," a boy slavehunter in Rosa's childhood who grows up to see her as the symbol of all he must defeat in order to succeed. Engle's spare free verse gives voice to these characters, and the sequence (divided into five sections, three of them for the three wars of the period) vividly depicts the reality of an existence where hiding and resisting is a norm for half a century; she also manages to convey a simple yet lucid overview of the political and social forces clashing over the island's fate. Since Cuba's current transition is bringing the island again to the fore, the subject will have particular interest, and readers unfamiliar with the island's past will find much food for thought in the correlation to the U.S.'s revolution and the World War II resistance efforts. With its compact writing and tight character focus, the poems could also serve as effective readalouds or readers' theater, and they'll certainly enhance reader understanding of the history of our side of the world. A historical note helps differentiate fact from creative license; a chronology and a references list are also included.

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