Holy Radishes
by Roberto G. Fernàndez
Category: Fiction

A host of memorable and wacky characters populate this satire of Cuban immigrant life. Lisander, the poet laureate, trades the golden laurel crown of yesteryear for a career as a rock musician. Dina, once the squirrel-costumed prostitute of MarinaÍs zoological luxury brothel, is now the mistress of the radish processing plant. Nelson goes nuts for the squirrel and Bernab? poses as a Nazi concentration camp survivor. The civic leaders who resort to the wilderness of Lake Okeechobess spend their days planning the liberation of their homeland while their wives toil in the radish plant and find consolidation in their shared memories of the Xawa Ladies Tennis Club and their canasta parties. While Holy Radishes is a parable of the Cuban immigrant community, it is, foremost, the story of Nelly Pardo, a dreamer who envisions herself in the paradise called Mondovi, where she has an intimate relationship with Rigoletto, her truffle-loving pet pig. And it is to fulfill her dreams for a better world that she will team up with redneck ex-cheerleader Mrs. James B. III who fabricates a mythical antebellum past to rival that of the immigrants. This unlikely alliance reflects the capacity of women to endure, survive, and overcome.