I Was Never the First Lady

“I Was Never The First Lady stitches together threads of island and identity until they became one and the same…Guerra’s own unpredictable book is haunting, complicated, [and] linguistically beautiful.” -- The New York Times

A lush, sensuous, and original tale of family, love, and history, set against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath.

Nadia Guerra’s mother, Albis Torres, left when Nadia was just ten years old. Growing up, the proponents of revolution promised a better future. Now that she’s an adult, Nadia finds that life in Havana hasn’t quite matched its promise; instead it has stifled her rebellious and artistic desires. Each night she DJs a radio show government censors block from broadcasting. Frustrated, Nadia finds hope and a way out when she wins a scholarship to study in Russia. 

Leaving Cuba offers her the chance to find her long lost mother and her real father. But as she embarks on a journey east, Nadia soon begins to question everything she thought she knew and understood about her past.

As Nadia discovers more about her family, her fate becomes entwined with that of Celia Sanchez, an icon of the Cuban Revolution—a resistance fighter, ingenious spy, and the rumored lover of Fidel Castro. A tale of revolutionary ideals and promise, Celia’s story interweaves with Nadia’s search for meaning, and eventually reveals secrets Nadia could never have dreamed.

Translated from the Spanish by Achy Obejas

Wendy Guerra is a contributor for CNN en Español and has been published by various magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times and the Spanish dailies El País and El Mundo. Her first collection of poetry, Platea a oscuras, earned a prize from the University of Havana when she was just seventeen. In 2006, she won the Bruguera Prize for Everyone Leaves. Although her novels have been translated into several languages, only one of them has been published in Cuba. She currently resides in south Florida.