Right off the bat, Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes may be one of my new favorite authors. Her slim but dense collection Are We Ever Our Own is a challenging and beautiful conversation on identity, womanhood,colonialism, Cuban-American history, grief, art, and self-actualization. The eleven stories are all loosely linked around the women of the Armando Castell family - artists, rebels, and seekers who have no idea how far their blood has scattered. The stories play with reality, genre, and tone - The opening story stars the ghost of the very real artist Ana Mendieta quietly haunts the museum of her male partner and artist who overshadowed her career (and possibly lead to her death). Following are fable-like tragedies in occupied Cuba, crushingly realistic tales of hope and betrayal, an academic commentary of published letters of a late artist, and slices-of-life with just a hint of mystery. Several take place in a time unstated, or a reality where the magical is taken for granted - a little patience is rewarded with beautiful prose and real feelings. All of the characters deal with their identity as Cuban, either under occupation or as immigrants, and their relationship to the quiet and overt prejudice they face - even the ones who may be born of the wind.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a review through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program. I'm so glad I did. ( )

Short stories are not usually my preference, but I have to give full props to the way that this collection both connects all the stories and lets just about every one stand alone. There's a lot of violence, a lot of colonialism, a dash too much of magical realism for my taste -- but really, something for everyone, here, and a deft hand with words, too. ( )

There were some excellent stories in this book. I really liked the ones that involved folklore and the ones that took place during the revolution.. ( )

"Are We Ever Our Own" is a terrific collection of short stories by Gabrielle Fuentes and it is no surprise it won a short fiction award. Every story is beautifully told with mythical style imagery and poetic type vocabulary. The author relates the struggles of Cuban women throughout the history of the Cartelli family. After reading this book, you will better understand the women who must endure and overcome personal tragedy as well as physical violence while trying to escape oppression and even end up in America.

Surviving in a culture haunted by family and wartime ghosts, women seek whatever measure of peace and dignity they can find. The stories move back and forth from Cuba and America, reflecting the experiences of courageous women embracing a yearning for freedom. These are powerful stories that will challenge your sensibilities and make you think about the dynamics of your own culture and certainly that of the Latinos.

It is important for Latino women to understand the dynamics that accompany them into different cultures and those that pervade their own personalities. You will recall the characters in this book long after you have finished reading it and put it down. ( )

Disclaimer: ARC via LibraryThing

Fuentes’ collection are short stories that focus on the women in one huge and extended family. Some of the stories take place before the families’ immigration out of Cuba and some take place during the revolution in Cuba. There is a sense of magic in all the tales though some hew more closely to magic realism than straight forward fantasy – some of the tales draw from real life figures.
The first story is one of these. It focuses, in part, on the ghost of the artist Ana Medieta haunting the home/studio of fellow artist Donald Judd. The focus on this story isn’t so much just art, but the effect of art on the people around it and what art can be as well as the intersection of race, class, and gender. The story ends on a rather beautiful and heartbreaking image.
It is followed by the tale of two close friends and what happens in the aftermath of the revolution. “The Burial of Fidela Armando Castell” . Some of the same themes from that story are used in “The Night the Almiqui” though a completely different way.
Both “Two Gallon Heat”, “Elephant Foot”, and “The Field of Professional Mourning” all highlight both the fantastic and horror, but also different areas of society - from the relationships in familiar to the relationships between girls to the idea of grief and performance, if it is, in fact performance.
In many ways the idea of creation and gender – in particular creation and women - takes center stage in many of the stories, answering that question that the title of the book asks. And this does make it a stand out short story collection. It’s true that there a few stories that don’t quite gel, at least for me, but even in those, I have to give Fuentes credit for experimentally and taking narrative or structural risks.
Many of the stories, even some of the ones I didn’t like, have powerful images and description. You can understand why BOA Short Fiction prize. ( )