According to August 6th Thurber House author Tony Mendoza, the U.S. is the land of happily unsupervised dates. Cuban-born author/photographer Mendoza reminisced about his early experiences in America during an interview with Craft. His latest novel, Cuban Summer, is placed in 1954 Cuba, the same time Mendoza was a teen living there before he permanently moved to the U.S. with his family. “In my trips to the U.S., because I went to an American high school, when I was able to get out on weekends to go on dates, it was great. You know, there were no chaperones; American girls necked; Cuban girls did not. So everything was great!”
With his first novel, Cuban Summer, this spirited author portrays the life of young Tony de la Torre as he lives out his summer looking at girls, going to brothels, and consequently, taking the regular trip to the confessional. On the cusp of adulthood, the teenager knows what it is like to be wealthy, but learns what it’s like to live with the help of his chauffer, Gonzalo. This coming of age novel had been a work in progress for many years originating from Mendoza’s previous work, Stories. “It seems that I have a knack for writing one-paragraph stories, so in 1987, I figured, ‘Okay, why don’t I write a novel?’ So I took a story in that book and expanded it.”
As an undergraduate, Mendoza studied engineering at Yale and went onto pursue architecture at Harvard before following his true love of photography. While he was living in a New York City flat with a roommate, he did what any artist would do: he got inspired. He followed his roommate’s cat, Ernie, around for two years before he published his first collection of photographs along with a short narrative titling the memoir after his muse, Ernie. His other works include Stories, Cuba – Going Back, Dogs: A Postcard Book, and, of course, Cuban Summer. Mendoza has traveled around the country and taught photography at various universities including Ohio State.
Mendoza will be appearing at the Thurber House Wednesday, August 6, 2014, at 7:00PM where he will read from Cuban Summer. You can hear more of the history, the laughs, and adventure with Mendoza on crafttheshow.com.
