Raining over Teresa: From Mother to Hero
()
About this ebook
Teresa Piñeiro knew no fear. In 1960, pregnant, thirty-one-year-old Teresa Piñeiro, along with a group of men, appears in the local newspaper after she is arrested for trying to hijack an airplane to Miami. The daughter of a retired first lieutenant and professor of the Army and the granddaughter of one of the trailblazing Spanish families who established the town of La Palma in western Cuba, Teresa finds herself in a maximum-security prison where she confronts the Comandante en Jefe, Fidel Castro.
Now, four generations of Teresa’s family—her mother, her blind grandmother, her ten-year-old daughter, and eventually, Teresa’s newborn son—find themselves entangled in a hurricane of ideologies where those in charge hold all the cards. The future of Teresa’s family depends on her resiliency during trying times which drove some women like her insane.
Teresa is a woman too advanced for her time. On her third marriage at the time of her imprisonment, Teresa has lived a fascinating life full of adventure that has allowed her to rub shoulders with the most prestigious families of the island. Now her past has come to haunt her, and only she will be able to save herself from what awaits.
_______
Beginning with her first book, Waiting on Zapote Street, Mrs. Viamontes documented the terrors, losses, and triumphs of Cuban families. These are not stories of Cold War intrigue. Instead, they are the tales of common people caught up in the delusions of a monster. Most poignantly, they tell of aged grandparents hugging children that they would never see again.
Most of Mrs. Viamontes’ writing deals with the struggles of poor and middle-class families caught up in a social hurricane. The newest book, Raining Over Teresa, however, breaks new ground. It follows the life of the headstrong daughter of prominent planters who married into wealth.
In a single day, she went from a world of privilege to the barbarity of a death prison.
This true story gives readers a rare glimpse into a communist prison, headed by the legendary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. It also introduces us to Fidel Castro, not as a political leader, but as an arrogant interrogator, demanding summary executions.
Raining Over Teresa, however, is much more than a prison memoir. Astonishingly, Teresa María Piñeiro did not die beside that lonely road where she was dumped. Instead, she began to walk. As I write this, she is 94 years old, retired from a successful career in the United States. Her large family lives throughout the world. Now thanks to the work of Betty Viamontes, a new generation will know how she survived.
Raining Over Teresa is essential reading in America in the 2020s. In our “land of the free,” college students declare “Free Expression” as reactionary. Speakers with opposing views are shouted off campus. Opposition politicians are indicted and their followers imprisoned. Violent mobs riot in our streets before elections. There has never been a better time to study the lives of Teresa and her thousands of compatriots before we lose our own precious freedoms. Betty Viamontes gives us a window into their world.
Allen A. Witt PhD
Lead Author of America’s Community College: The First Century
Betty Viamontes
Betty Viamontes was born in Havana, Cuba. In 1980, at age fifteen, she and her family arrived in the United States on a shrimp boat to reunite with her father after twelve years of separation. "Waiting on Zapote Street," based on her family's story, her first novel won the Latino Books into Movies award and has been selected by many book clubs. She also published an anthology of short stories, all of which take place on Zapote Street and include some of the characters from her first novel. Betty's stories have traveled the world, from the award-winning Waiting on Zapote Street to the No. 1 New Amazon re-leases "The Girl from White Creek," "The Pedro Pan Girls: Seeking Closure," and "Brothers: A Pedro Pan Story." Other works include: Havana: A Son's Journey Home The Dance of the Rose Under the Palm Trees: Surviving Labor Camps in Cuba Candela's Secrets and Other Havana Stories The Pedro Pan Girls: Seeking Closure Love Letters from Cuba Flight of the Tocororo Betty Viamontes lives in Florida with her family and pursued graduate studies at the University of South Florida.
Read more from Betty Viamontes
Brothers: A Pedro Pan Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHavana: A Son's Journey Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlight of the Tocororo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pedro Pan Girls: Seeking Closure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Girl from White Creek Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder the Palm Trees: Surviving Labor Camps in Cuba Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrchids in the Shadows: Between Darkness and Light in Cuba Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dance of the Rose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCandela's Secrets and Other Havana Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLos Secretos de Candela y Otros Cuentos de la Habana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfter They Left Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Letters from Cuba Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Girl Named Polina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Raining over Teresa
Related ebooks
Orchids in the Shadows: Between Darkness and Light in Cuba Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Just Fine Thank You" Growing Up with Family Secrets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homesick: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Familia: A Memoir of Perseverance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSister Betty Says I Do Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrace at Low Tide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neighborhood Stories: 'The new ideals of the great world are here'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNeighborhood Stories: 'When you look at a corpse you can always sense your own breath better'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTruly Blessed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSomewhat Saved Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Palace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSatan's Priest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeaven's Fury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home is Where the Heart Is Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman with Two Birthdays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Harvest: An Immigrant in the United States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEse to Master Jefe: From street gang life in South Central Los Angeles to US Navy Master Chief Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grandparenting Teens: Leaving a Legacy of Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHobo Trip to Loma Linda and Back to the Planet Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cherry Cola Book Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParallel Worlds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe True Meaning of Christmas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOctober Song Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When the Devil Laughed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRECURRING DREAMS: A WRESTLING STORY Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFranciszka Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGift of Revelation Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Smell of Poverty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoor but Rich: A Story of Seven Sisters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMusings of Yesteryear Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Women's Biographies For You
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stash: My Life in Hiding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: An Oprah's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman They Wanted: Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Butts: A Backstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madness: A Bipolar Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frida Kahlo: An Illustrated Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Raining over Teresa
0 ratings0 reviews