We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?
This collection published in 1994 are fictional stories that take place in Chicago, many of which portray Latina lesbian refugees with short stories concerning “refugees and exiles of all ilks” Cuban refugees, junkies, homosexuals and AIDS victims. Reviewers have described
We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? as “down to earth” and “the writings of the disenfranchised.”
Memory Mambo
Published in 1996, Obejas’ first novel concerns Juani Casas, a 20 something Cuban-American lesbian living in Chicago. This novel explores the themes of family, memory and identity that she focused on in
We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? Publisher’s Weekly described Obejas’ prose as “illuminating and honest”.
Ruins
This novel published in 2009 “penetrates to the very heart of the Cuban paradox” takes place in 1994 during the Special Period in which anyone wishing to leave Cuba is able to leave. The hero of the story, Usnavy, remains dedicated to the revolution as the Havana that he knows literally crumbles around him. He has one treasure that consumes him; an extraordinary stained glass lamp that was his mothers and is possibly a real Tiffany lamp. With
Ruins Obejas “confronts the fate of those who escape to the United States, and those who remain (as well as) broad issues of religious and sexual identity.”
- "Havana Luna " (2009) Akashic Books
- Ruins (2009) Akashic Books
- Havana Noir (2007)
- This is What Happened In Our Other Life (2007)
- Days of Awe (2001)
- Memory Mambo (1996)
- We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? (1994)