Hers was a riveting story – nobody ever questioned that – but Maria Balestri of La Salle labored for years at writing an autobiography focused on her fleeing communist Cuba. It just never came together.
During a family vacation in Miami this past winter, Balestri’s daughter Cristina Murray had an inspiration: Why not tell your story in an illustrated children’s book?
It was an inspired idea and suddenly Balestri had the wind at her back. She sat down at her writing desk and the words came easily. Friends and family helped with the editing and illustration and within months “Two Small Suitcases” became available on Amazon.
“This happened very quickly,” said Balestri, 78, who quickly abandoned a book-length autobiography. “I’d been working on this for years and I wanted to do it before I’m gone.”
At age 14, Balestri had fled communist Cuba aboard one of the “Peter Pan” flights. A Catholic priest had arranged for Cuban children to seek safe harbor in America. Balestri’s parents, Armando and Adela Garcia, made the difficult decision to put daughters Maria and Adelita, 16, on the plane in 1962.
It was emotional saying goodbye to her parents. Balestri well remembers how frightened she and her sister were when the plane took off.
“After we landed and bused to the refugee camp, we held hands in the bunk beds,” Balestri recalled. “I had the top, and my sister had the bottom. We were scared.”
The story had a happy ending. A few years later, Armando and Adela successfully emigrated from Cuba and there was a joyous reunion.
Balestri later married and enjoyed a long career as a Spanish teacher at La Salle-Peru Township High School and Dimmick School before she retired in 2012. She finally returned to Cuba for a visit in 2017.
Along the way, she attempted repeatedly to chronicle her life story.
“We were sitting at the pool in Miami and Cristina, my middle daughter, said, ‘Mom, why don’t you just write a children’s book? As you remember it, the way you see it?’”
Balestri had become a grandmother and warmed to the idea of writing her story as if to her grandchildren. She also considered that plenty of books had been written about Fidel Castro and the repressive regime he imposed after toppling Cuba’s government in 1959. Did the world really need another?
Balestri sat down at her writing desk and this time everything clicked. She wrote a heartfelt narrative about saying goodbye to her parents, holding her breath while the communists rifled through her meager belongings at the airport, and then landing in a strange country.
It was an emotional project, but Balestri had plenty of help. Former L-P colleagues Marj Verplaetse and Joelyn Anderson lent their support. Balestri’s eldest daughter, Alisa Clancy, managed all the technology and used artificial intelligence to illustrate the book.
Perhaps most important was the test audience. Balestri’s youngest granddaughter, Mia Grace, was the first one to read the book and give it a thumbs-up.
“So it was a family affair, as it turned out,” Balestri said.