Tropical Tale No. 3 - Vol. 4
Miami Book Fair International

I am glad the Miami Book Fair decided to add "international" to the name of their event, because hardly anyone spoke English. The longest lines were not for readers who wanted to purchase books from their favorite authors, but rather for assistance in filling out immigration forms in English. The event took on a rather political twist this year.

I felt I was living a psychedelic nightmare as my booth was sandwiched in between the Communist book seller promoting Che Guevara's politics and the Stonewall Gay and Lesbian books; luckily I didn't see them sell any books at all.

My husband, was delighted when some irate Cubans tried to pull down the red tee-shirts displaying Che Guevara's face, and a shouting match ensued breaking up the monotony of sitting on hard plastic chairs.  Luckily the police arrived in time to calm the passionate tempers of the Cubans who were highly offended (and rightly so) at the flagrant display of Communist propaganda. I must admit that if anyone deserves accolades for a very professional job well done, it was the Miami Police Department who were highly visible everywhere.

As I was shaking my head, saying, oh well, the First Amendment is alive and working well here, Channel 2 TV, PBS, was kind enough to interview me asking me to talk about my novels. I am a subscriber to Channel 2, and watch them frequently, especially when Andre Rieu is on. They provide us with nice educational programs in an antiquated way reminiscent of the days when there was no violence and vulgarity on TV.  Will those days ever return?

Another delight in this three-day circus atmosphere was in meeting my tent companion, Al Gabrielle, author of La Razza and other novels, who was very simpatico but a little slighted at the Book Fair for canceling his scheduled speaking engagement, casting him off like yesterday's newspaper without so much as an apology.

Most people walking by my table spoke to me in Spanish asking if my novels had been translated into Spanish as they were not interested in reading English books.  I also ended up doing an interview for the Ibero-Americano media. I will have to talk to my publisher about foreign translations.

The yellow C-span truck was evident at the entrance of the fair and interviewed the big names such as Rosie O'Donnell.  Kids certainly had a good time bouncing around the kiddie court with painted faces and funny hats.  My favorite occupation was in distributing water to the little dogs that were most grateful for a drink out of a paper cup in the hot weather.

Alinka  Zyrmont