When We Left Cuba

Explore how Beatriz’s relationships with her family in Florida help establish and characterize the tensions and differences between the US and Cuba. You may wish to focus on a single family member—father, mother, sisters, brother—or consider them as a unit. You may also consider what Eduardo represents as a connection to Cuba.

Discuss the prejudice that Beatriz senses against her in Palm Beach society. Do you suppose this is because she is beautiful, because she is Cuban, because she is not a native-born American, or something else? How does it impact Beatriz’s character to go from being admired (if slightly scandalous) in Cuban society to being suspect (and even more scandalous) in American high society?

Discuss Beatriz’s relationship with Nick and how this romantic relationship becomes a way for Beatriz to discover what she values, wants, and wishes for her life. You may wish to consider the contract between what Nick represents not just as a personality but as an American, in contrast to Beatriz’s different personality as well as her Cuban background.

Explore Beatriz’s conflict between the gendered expectations for marriage and motherhood imposed on her by her mother and her own wish for important, fulfilling work. What does it mean that independence and freedom are phrased in masculine terms, and what choices must Beatriz make to claim these prerogatives for herself?

Consider the small but significant scenes that flash forward to 2016 and discuss what they add to the structure, suspense, and dramatic pacing of the novel. Present an argument for why you think Cleeton added this second timeline to the novel by demonstrating, with examples from the text, what these scenes add to the dramatic and thematic action of the 1960s storyline.

Consider the role that Cuba plays in Beatriz’s imagination as opposed to her real life. How does her love for a lost or imagined Cuba impact her choices and her motivations? How does her confrontation with the “real” Cuba—or Castro—change these perceptions?

Compare Eduardo and Nick as foils who represent Beatriz’s competing loyalties. What does Beatriz gain from her relationship to Eduardo? What does she gain from her relationship with Nick? What does each man represent in her life, and why does she, in the end of the 1960s storyline, choose neither of them?

Explore how Beatriz comes to terms with her exile from Cuba through her experiences in Florida and London. Use passages from both storylines in the text to argue for her reasons in choosing a life as a CIA spy and what home eventually comes to mean to her.