Synopsis "Dreaming on Paper: The Life of a Cuban Author "
When rebel soldiers snatch sixteen-year-old Mendo, he can't think clearly--shrapnel pings the bunker's tin roof... bombs rumble his stomach. The Bay of Pigs begins. Mendo's first manuscript is born in that rebel bunker. Later as a messenger at a local newspaper, he interviews Ernest Hemingway. His front page story propels Mendo to status as a journalist. He writes his novel on an old Underwood years later, but it costs him over nineteen years in prison when Castro's men jail him. A friend from Cuba smuggles out half of his manuscript and sells it to an American collector/drug dealer to provide for Mendo's family. Once released from prison, the search for the other half sends Mendo, daughter Mariposa, and Mariposa's betrothed on a dangerous quest to find it. Will Mendo risk further imprisonment and try to rewrite the second half of that scathing manuscript? His old journal, the one he began in that bunker as a teenager, beckons him from a secret hiding place. He can only stare at its blood-stained pages. And what about that other secret? But the memory of Hemingway's words to him keep coming back! Look, kid, you want to write, then write like me and never give up. Writing at its best is a lonely life..." Haunted by recurring flashbacks, Mendo must write, though a bad heart sidelines him and memory fails. A friend surfaces with news that his missing pages translated into English are stashed in one of the two Hemingway homes. Mariposa, a Castro supporter, wants Mendo to stop writing for fear of further retribution. Fiancé Anton wants to see normal relations between Cuba and America restored, creating further conflict within the family. The drug dealer/collector purchased the manuscript from Mendo's boyhood friend, who had recovered it when Mendo was jailed. Anton's nosing around invites danger and threatens his life. The collector also wants the missing half, and danger escalates, placing Mendo and his daughter, Mariposa in grave danger. The collector is murdered and his estate left to an estranged wife. Anton sells everything he owns to purchase the manuscript and presents it to Mendo. Mendo's hands shake as he turns the pages. His face pales and he struggles to find his words. Is Mendo's mind failing? What if this is a Hemingway missing manuscript? If it is Hemingway's, Mendo will leave an immense inheritance for his daughter. But if it's his, Mendo's life will be complete, fulfilled.
