![]() RODRIGUEZ: I think at the beginning I was just trying to cope with being in a new country and figuring out how to deal with what my family had just went through. SIMON: Looking back, did you ever tell yourself, I'm going to tell this story someday? And we had to find a way to get along while we were there. We were put in this camp with people that had just arrived from prison - murderers, rapists, you know, prostitutes sort of all put into this camp with family members. You know, my mom was strip-searched in front of me when we arrived there. But it's something that us Cubans have lived with our whole life, the memories of the things that were done to us and what happened at these detention camps. There's a lot of things that happened in Cuba that the rest of the world really doesn't know about, because it's an island. ![]() It's something that they'd rather forget. In general, they don't really talk much about the Mariel boatlift. Of course, it's not something that's mentioned or spoken about by the Cuban government. RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, we were in a detention camp for about a week in Cuba. SIMON: I'm afraid I didn't know until reading this graphic novel how cruel the conditions under which you and your family were held on a Cuban military base while you were waiting to leave. And they tried to not talk about politics, and when they did, it was done in a very quiet way, usually in a backroom or in a place where neighbors wouldn't be listening in. I mean, the fear comes from the possibility that someone could be listening to you or listening to your conversation. Your mother, for example, would never mention El Jefe, I'll call Fidel Castro, by name. And let me ask you about the - not just the shortages of food and other supplies with which you and your family grew up, but the fear. But then later on, when I - after we had left, I came to realize that that's what dictators and political figures - they find names to give people that they disagree with to dehumanize them, so. I mean, at the time, we kind of took it for granted because it was just said so often. Worm was how the Cuban government derided people who wanted to leave, like your family, right? ![]() And I think that that juxtaposition was a very strong image that I had in my mind from the very first moments that I started coming up with the story. That's what I wanted to picture on the cover, contrasted with the word worm right above him. This was a moment when - you know, I think when you're a child, when you get something like a uniform or something where you feel like you belong. RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think that boy was very adventurous. SIMON: Tell us about that little boy on the cover in a Young Pioneers red cap. Thanks so much for being with us.ĮDEL RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. His book is called "Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey," and Edel Rodriguez joins us from his studio in New Jersey. He uses his own life to capture what it's like to grow up under an authoritarian government and to sound a caution for the future. His latest work is a graphic memoir that tells the story of his childhood in Cuba and his family's decision in 1980 to join a hazardous flotilla of refugees, the Mariel boatlift. They are singular, striking and often controversial. Edel Rodriguez has created more than 200 magazine covers for the likes of The New Yorker and Time magazine, Newsweek and Der Spiegel.
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