The book explores the way Cuban-Americans assimilate into American culture by studying some very well-known Cuban-Americans including Desi Arnaz, Oscar Hijuelos, Perez Prado and Gloria Estefan (some of the people we’ve been highlighting each day on our Twitter Tribute to Hispanic-Americans of Influence).

There are thousands of reactions immigrants have to assimilation: some embrace their new culture fully, some hold onto the old culture refusing to acknowledge their new home and some become a unique mix of both cultures. No matter where a person immigrates to or from, there is a sense of confusion and rebirth.

Life On The Hyphen highlights the effect this process has on the arts:

• The I Love Lucy Show would never have been the success it was if it were just a typical American couple.
• The conga and mambo both suffered identity crises when introduced to American culture.
• Poets and writers develop new techniques to express themselves in a new language.

The effects permeate our souls, our points of view and future generations. The book is an interesting study on what exactly is Cuban-American culture. After reading this book, I have come to the conclusion that the Cuban-American culture is an ever-changing blend of people, music, food, words and experiences. It is still being defined today and changes from person to person.

Thankfully someone invented Spanglish so we can all talk to each other!

But with anticipation building as we flesh out the plans for our visit from noted Cuban-American author Gustavo Pérez Firmat, the curiosity ninja struck! (Now, I know that age-old adage about curiosity killing the cat, but here’s what they don’t tell you: Satisfaction brought him back.)

Professional biographies don’t usually lend a lot of insight into the personality of an individual, so I picked up one of his books—Scar Tissue—from Amazon and decided to let his writing speak for himself.

In an attempt to avoid the cliché, “the book spoke to me,” let’s say instead that my choice, though random, was a result of picking the book with the most ambiguous title. (Ok, it was ambiguous to me as I didn’t read excerpts, reviews or synopses.)

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I know that Scar Tissue obliterated every half-formulated notion I had skittering around.

The book is a poetic chronicle of Gustavo’s struggle with prostate cancer and, more importantly, his journey to redefine and discover his sense of self.

I was expecting themes like anger, denial, pain and perseverance, but most amazing were the topics I didn’t expect: romance, humor, brutal honesty, sarcasm and beauty. I was moved. To tears. To laughter. To love. To triumph.

It’s not very often, if ever, that we get to see inside someone’s head. While reading about Gustavo’s journey through that valley filled with the shadow of death, I was Gustavo and I’m still not sure I’ve completely recovered.