"Teresa de la Caridad Doval shows us the heart of a Cuban teen-hot, melancholy and sweet as homemade flan. The kids in A Girl Like Che Guevara are scrappy, muscled survivors, I fell in love."-Lisa Lerner, author of Just Like Beauty "A fresh, fascinating first-hand account of coming of age in Communist Cuba. A must for anyone interested in peering behind the doctrinal veil of Castro's educational and social system and the dreams of one girl caught in its web."-Himike Novas, author of Mangos Bananas and Coconuts: A Cuban Love Story 1982. Havana, Cuba. Sixteen-year-old Lourdes yearns to emulate Che Guevara, and has a healthy disgust for gusanos (worms)-those who fled Cuba on the Mariel boatlift. Every summer she and other high school students work in the nationalized tobacco fields to prove their dedication to Fidel and the Revolution. Lourdes, herself the product of a biracial marriage, outwardly scoffs at the old ways but she wears an azabache amulet under her clothing, next to her Che medallion to ward off evil spirits. She secretly prays to the orisha Yemaya, while she pledges her fealty to Fidel and the socialist ideals of her father, a professor of scientific communism at the University of Havana. As she struggles with her confused sexuality, the pervasive race issues that are sundering her parents' marriage, and the harsh realities of life in a glorified work camp, Lourdes begins to question her allegiances. Why does she want to be like Che? Teresa de la Caridad Doval was born and lived in Havana, Cuba. Her family's attempts to leave on the Mariel boatlift were thwarted. She attended the University of Havana and earned a BA in English literature and an MA in Spanish literature. She left Cuba in 1996 and currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her husband.