The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba

by Margarita Engle

cover by Barnes & Noble

Engle, Margarita. The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2010. ISBN: 978-0-8050-9082-6.

Poetic Elements

This award-winning historical novel in verse documents Swedish suffragette and writer, Fredrika Bremer’s extended visit to Cuba in 1851. Fredrika, an advocate for women’s rights, gave up the “tedious life of a noblewoman” to travel the world stating:

“There is no place more lonely / than a rich man’s home.”

The story is based on Bremer’s actual journal entries and told from the alternating first-person perspectives of Fredrika, her young slave translator, and the fictional daughter of a wealthy Cuban host. Engle incorporates similes, metaphors, and elements of personification to weave the story of hope and friendship between these women who long for freedom and equality. Elena, the twelve year old daughter of a wealthy sugar planter in whose home Fredrika was based, offers a personal view of her upcoming forced marriage:

“The thought of marriage / to some old frowning stranger, makes me feel just as helpless / as a slave.” Although Fredrika was placed by the Swedish Consul “among gentry, surrounded by luxury”, she observes: “Elena and her mother move like shadows / lost in their private world / of silk and lace.” Cecilia, the fifteen-year-old pregnant slave and translator, evicts an emotional impact from readers when it’s revealed that “beneath the light / of the eerie / dangerous moon” her own father exchanged her for a stolen cow when she was only eight years old. Now, her unborn child faces the same inevitable fate of slavery.

        

Appeal

Engle has said she loves to write stories about young people who make hopeful choices in hopeless situations. Perhaps this story of courage and compassion will resonate with young readers and give them hope and courage in difficult times today.

Overall Quality

Like Engle’s earlier award-winning young adult novels in verse, The Surrender Tree and The Poet Slave of Cuba, this novel garnered numerous awards:

• Pura Belpre Honor
• Jane Addams Award Finalist                                            
• California Book Award Finalist
• Inernational Reading Association Notable Book for a Global Society
• Americas Award Honor
• NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Book
• Amelia Bloomer Book
•  TAYSHAS Choice
• Junior Library Guild Selection
•  ALSC 2011 Notable Children’s Book

This moving narrative stimulates a variety of thoughts and emotions as the reader contemplates the difference between Cuban culture of the nineteenth century and the freedom experienced in the twenty-first century today.

The Poet

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American winner of the first Newbery Honor ever awarded to a Latino. She lives in central California, where she enjoys helping her husband with his volunteer work for wilderness search and rescue dog training programs. On her website at http://www.margaritaengle.com/about.html, she says writing a historical novel in verse “feels like time travel, a dreamlike blend of imagination and reality. It is an exploration. It is also a chance to communicate with the future, through young readers.”

Layout

The free verse form of The Firefly Letters will appeal to young people and provide a quick read. Simple illustrations of the cocoons—fireflies—are above the name of each narrator’s voice throughout the book. The narrative flows nicely between the voices of Fredrika, Cecilia, and Elena. The book also includes a historical note, author’s note, acknowledgments, and references at the back of the book.

Spotlight Poem

The Firefly Letters

by Margarita Engle

“Cecilia”

I watch the fireflies in my mind

while I walk beneath a coppery sun

to the office

of the Magistrate.

My heart drums with gratitude.

My thoughts sing

with hope.

Fifteen gold dollars

was the amount Fredrika obtained

by selling all the fancy pearl-studded,

jewel-encrusted, lace-edged, ruffled folds

of embroidered cloth

that I thought Elena was keeping

for her own hope chest

so she could run away

and elope.

I assumed she was in love,

but as it turns out

her love was meant

for my child.

Fifteen gold dollars

is the price of liberty

for an unborn baby,

my baby,

a gift

so amazing,

the future,

this hope

I can share!

Poetry Break

Introduction: I would introduce this novel by displaying an image of a captive cucoyos—firefly. Brainstorm with the class and do a collaborative “Wordle” showing the words that came to mind as they viewed the photo. Then, make a list of what students could buy today for the price of fifteen dollars.

Extension Activity: After reading the novel, revisit the list of things students can buy today for fifteen dollars and discuss the sacrifices all three women made so that Cecilia’s child could be born free. Then discuss the women’s rights movement, slavery, and other ways of life on the island of Cuba during that time period. For research purposes, some of the letters Fredrika Bremer wrote when she traveled to the United States can be found on Project Runeberg’s website.