The idea of Pepito’s story came from the living conditions in Cuba over the last fifty plus years; chiefly, the absence of nourishing food, manufactured conveniences of every imaginable type, and the lack of common over-the-counter drugs as well as late generation medicines. The foregoing issues principally related to Fidel Castro’s attack on American-style civil liberties and the right of self-determination. The focus of the book however, is the part true but mostly fictional tale of a young boy born to an aristocratic birthright, his few early years of earthly bliss, and his emotional detachment from the nation’s poverty-politics through his obsession with the game of baseball and the baseball games he plays with significant difficulties. The backdrop, and no-less-moving than Pepito’s story, is the living kaleidoscope of characters around Pepito and their own very personal challenges living in the `so called’ communist state. If you appreciate reality and truth in fiction, this is one story you may truly like.

The pitcher winds up, delivering a fastball beauty, about waist high, down the middle of the plate. The batter swings, putting great wood on the baseball. It sounds like a canon shot, the line drive hitting the pitcher dead center in the gut, right at the solar plexus. With no chance to catch it, and in great pain, the pitcher collapses to the ground as the batter high-tails it to first base. It is close. The third baseman fields the ball as the first baseman strains in his stretch; `Slap!’ the sound of the baseball hitting the glove just thousands of a second before the runner’s foot touched the bag. “Out,” blasts the umpire through his nostrils. Failing to help his team, the hitter walks slowly toward the outfield. Other boys meekly lower their heads; a few congratulate the winning players. Naturally, Pepito’s brother Roberto is quite ecstatic. Dispassionately, Pepito stares at him thinking, ‘there will be another day.’

Rene' Abril de Cubria was born in Santiago de Cuba in January of 1954, to a prominent newspaper family. His early years of plenitude and privilege were replaced by Fidel Castro's revolution and its policy of forced nutritional abstinence, elimination of free speech, and any real progress in the interest of improving Cuba's standard of living for the majority. In August of 1961, Mr. Abril arrived on the tarmac of Miami International Airport, he remains eternally grateful to God first, and thereafter the United States of America, for its dedicated hospitality and urgency in assisting like-minded people all over the world. Mr. Abril's favorite song when thinking of freedom in any way, is, "The Greatest Love of All."