Aida’s Story

AIDA’S STORY traces the evolution of a studious young Latina nursing student into an avid nationalist willing to die for Puerto Rican independence. It is set in Spanish Harlem and Puerto Rico during the late 1960s and early 70s. The novel features Aida Garcia, the daughter of a former Puerto Rican nationalist and Jimmy Beecher, the son of a local white minister. It recounts their courtship, marriage, birth of their daughter, and Aida’s growing involvement in the movement to create a free Puerto Rico. What begins as an idyllic love story falls victim to Aida’s growing conviction that only violence can shake the conscience of America and win independence for her beloved island. Torn between their commitment to justice and their love for each other, Jimmy and Aida struggle to reconcile la familia and la causa. On the one hand a moving love story, it is on the other hand a vivid personal accounting of the forces that drive one young woman to commit an act of violent political extremism. The novel is told from the point of view of Aida’s husband recounting her story many years later to their granddaughter who, following the horror of Hurricane Maria, has become obsessed, herself, with the continuing colonial status of Puerto Rico.