In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd

“Baseball Dreams” is divided into two parts. In the first, “THE BOY,” a first-person narrator, Mirta, describes a photo she has of her father as a 3-year-old boy and shares stories about his childhood. In the second, “THE GIRL,” a third-person narrator tells the story of Mirta waiting with her mother on a beach to meet her father, who never arrives.

In the first part, Mirta writes from Miami that as a child, her father loved the mountains and woke up early to watch the sunrise. He was illegitimate and not baptized. He hunted wild doves in the woods, “cursed his teachers” (79), and played children’s war games. Most of all, he longed to become a baseball player.

In 1935, he played his first informal game at the age of 9. Always a leader, Mirta’s father selected the biggest, fastest players and appointed himself pitcher. He walked the first batter but struck out the second. Three innings passed without a run, until the batter up before Mirta’s father hit a home run. Her father had wanted to be the first; instead, he struck out. When his team was about to lose the game, Mirta’s father started walking away and the other boys called him names.