Ada Ferrer’s ‘Keeper of My Kin’ on Cuba, memory, and migration

Ada Ferrer was just 10 months old when she and her mother migrated from Cuba to the United States, leaving her brother, Poly, behind. It was 1963, a few years after the revolution.

Her parents stayed in America, and Ferrer went on to become a leading authority on Cuban history. Her book Cuba: An American History won the Pulitzer Prize in 2022.

Her new memoir, Keeper of My Kin, is based on the many family letters her parents saved. It tells an intimate and painful story about a family broken and remade by historical events.

Poly’s life was scarred by the trauma of feeling abandoned and alone. When he came to the U.S. in 1980 on the Mariel Boatlift, he was a troubled adult with a history of violence, mental illness, and addiction.

Ada Ferrer joins us on The Connection this week to talk about how history and family collide, the impact of immigration, family stories and secrets, survivor’s guilt, and why she writes “to make amends.”