How to Leave Hialeah is a beautiful and detailed map of the crowded beaches and neighborhoods of Miami as seen through the lives of the people who call them home. Her new novel, Magic City Relic , is forthcoming for St. Leaving seems to come up over and over again.
The same was true for me about Miami or, more precisely, that even though I grew up in Miami, I was a tourist in the places intended for touristsโspots like South Beachโand a lot of Miami Beach, reallyโand the shitty places we got dragged to on field trips, like the shitty, shitty, whale-oppressing Miami Seaquarium.
It was weird to move away from Miami and then meet people who had been there once or a couple times who had very clear ideas about where I was from, which got me thinking about how something becomes iconic to a placeโthe ways in which something comes to be part of the cultural imagination of a place.
My story collection was sort of my working through that question. MM: I love that you say you wrote the book about Miami that you wanted to read. What is the question and what is the answer? I think by writing this here, it becomes law and someone has to follow through on it, yes? Thank you in advance, someone. And healthier. JCC: Actually, since you mentioned it, I did contemplate becoming posthumous bling, but the thought of me-as-diamond falling forever into the wrong hands i.
And yeah, I like the idea of me being healthy for once. MM: You bringing up Pitbull, who is Cuban and from Miami, along with dead people and aging, is an ideal opportunity to talk about Castro. Exile, displacement, and nostalgia are recurring themes in the book, as many of the characters have immigrated from Cuba.
