Doval, Teresa de la Caridad 1966-

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DOVAL, Teresa de la Caridad 1966-

(Teresa Dovalpage)

PERSONAL: Born 1966, in Havana, Cuba; immigrated to United States, 1996; married Hugh Page (an author, psychologist, professor, and chaplain), 1994. Education: University of Havana, B.A. (English literature), 1990; University of New Mexico, doctoral student.

ADDRESSES: Home—Albuquerque, NM. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Soho Press, 853 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Taught English at University of Havana and Havana Dentist School, Havana, Cuba; taught Spanish in community colleges and at University of California, San Diego Extension.

WRITINGS:

A Girl like Che Guevara (young adult novel), Soho Press (New York, NY), 2004.

(Under name Teresa Dovalpage) Posesas de la Habana (novel; title means "The Possessed of Havana"), Pureplay Press (Los Angeles, CA), 2004.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Two works of fiction, one in English, one in Spanish.

SIDELIGHTS: Teresa de la Caridad Doval, who publishes using the combination of her maiden and married names, Dovalpage, is the author of the novel A Girl like Che Guevara. Born in Havana, Cuba, and a graduate of the University of Havana, she taught in Cuba and met her husband while translating for him at a Silent Quaker meeting in Havana. They married, and two years later they traveled to San Diego, California, where Doval taught English in community colleges and at the University of California, San Diego Extension.

In San Diego, Doval was frequently asked about life in Cuba, and she began to write down her experiences. She adapted these to her debut young adult novel, which is set in 1982. During this era Communist revolutionary Che Guevara is a hero to all, including the protagonist. Lourdes Torres is a sixteen-year-old girl who must leave her comfortable urban home to serve for four months in a government work camp in the tobacco fields of the western province of Pinar del Rio. She is of mixed race, and her maternal grandmother practices the rites of Santeria to protect the girl, while her mother sticks pins in a doll clothed in scrap from her mother-in-law's dress.

Lourdes, who calls herself a skinny mulatica (mulatto), feels that no one will ever be attracted to her, but the work camp provides the opportunity for experimentation, first with boys, then with the voluptuous Aurora, with whom Lourdes shares a bed. Aurora becomes pregnant, and Lourdes, who is herself in a relationship with a boy, continues to have a crush on her. But she knows her hero, Guevara, would not have approved, since homosexuality was not tolerated by the Cuban government.

Several reviewers noted a certain stiffness to the prose as well as the slow pace exhibited by the first-time author. However, a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that Duval's "sensitive characterizations and rich picture of Havana and the beguiling Cuban landscape redeem her story." Booklist contributor Gillian Engberg described Lourdes's voice as "vulnerable, [and] believable," while St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Thomas Crone felt that, "without an uplifting finale, Doval seems to make clear that being raised in an impoverished nation takes a toll on multiple levels. The youths of A Girl like Che Guevara are lacking more than material goods and the simply joys of leisure time. They're essentially being robbed of their late childhoods."

In 2002, Doval and her husband moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she enrolled in the doctoral program in the Spanish and Portuguese department. During her first year there, she wrote her Spanish-language novel, Posesas de la Habana, which was published by Pureplay Press, a Los Angeles publisher dedicated to preserving the culture and history of Cuba.

The four women protagonists in Posesas de la Habana are members of one family, and the novel relates their experiences and recollections during a government-programmed blackout in 2000. In a press release posted at the publisher's Web site, Doval explained that "when different generations live under one roof, disputes will surely break out. When four out of five family members are female, with ages ranging from eleven to ninety, the estrogen building up in a two-bedroom apartment reaches dramatic proportions. The characters of Posesas de la habana, thanks to endless economic problems and political asphyxia, live not merely at the edge but in the middle of a constant nervous breakdown. Can these women find hope on an island where the sea appears as the only route to salvation?"