Jenisbel Acevedo y su nuevo libro “Un Barco de Sueños”
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00:00Hi people in Spanish, I'm Jenis Bela Acevedo and I'm here to talk to you about my new project,
00:10my first book, Un Barco de Sueños, so stay around.
00:16Un Barco de Sueños is the story of my family and mine when we had to leave our country,
00:23our great Cuba, in 1993 in search of our dreams, since we had too many limitations
00:31as human beings and my parents understood that the most intelligent and the most necessary
00:35for us as a family was to leave a dictatorship and emigrate to a country to receive better
00:41opportunities and to be able to overcome all our fears and achieve our dreams.
00:47The process of writing Un Barco de Sueños, I think it was more than a year, I was not
00:51very clear, really if it was going to be a book for children, if it was going to be a
00:55book for adults and then it ended up being a family story.
00:58I think it is a very easy book to read, both for a child and for a family, for a mother,
01:04a father who wants to look for tools to get ahead.
01:10I think that at the time of making a decision, if you have a guide, if you have other families
01:16that maybe have gone through it, I think it can help you and open the doors of those
01:21fears of saying, I'm going to launch myself too.
01:26And I also wanted the illustrations to be very, very exact because I wanted the book
01:32to be through my point of view, through a 9-year-old girl, how I visualized the process,
01:37that detachment, that emotional detachment from my home, from my school, from my friends,
01:42from my great-grandparents who raised me.
01:44So, it was a longer process than I thought, because every time I sent an illustration,
01:49it was what took me the most time.
01:51I wanted them to be very precise and that they were, as I say, childish at the same time.
01:56The illustrations were made between my team and me.
02:00They are very easy illustrations to interpret, but at the same time I wanted them to be very simple,
02:07because in simplicity sometimes one can notice and think.
02:12I wanted the person who was reading this story to go back to what I was going through.
02:19So, I didn't want the illustrations to be very elaborate, to have very vibrant colors,
02:25very vivid, because there really wasn't a lot of decoration in my childhood, there were no excesses,
02:31but there was a lot of hope and there was a lot of happiness.
02:34So, those vibrant colors, and it takes time, it takes time to get to that simplicity, but
02:40at the same time, what I wanted to visualize in my story.
02:44My childhood was simple, it was very simple, it was simple, where there were obviously shortcomings,
02:51but there was never a lack of love, there was never a lack of the desire to share family unity.
02:56I think that has been one of the most important pillars since I was a child, to celebrate traditions together.
03:02I remember my afternoons when I got to my grandparents' house, which is where I grew up,
03:08and play with the other kids in the block.
03:11A very healthy childhood, a childhood where I remember myself painting on the sidewalks,
03:17on the sidewalks, how I wanted, for example, the game that all the children play in Cuba,
03:22I don't remember what it's called now, but it was a lot of smiles.
03:26I remember that moment when I had to leave that block, where all my friends were,
03:34and it was very hard for me because I couldn't tell my friends that I was leaving, I couldn't say goodbye to them.
03:39I had the opportunity to say goodbye to my grandparents, and it was a hard time for me,
03:44but at the same time I had the hope that if I could find a better opportunity for me, for my family,
03:51we would be able to give a better future to my grandparents, who were very old, exhausted.
03:56The house where I grew up was deteriorating more and more, and we needed resources that we didn't have.
04:02So, I would say that it was also a childhood of a lot of courage,
04:06of knowing how to mature certain emotions quickly,
04:10not showing too much feeling, too much sadness,
04:17because if I expressed that, my parents also, especially at the time that we arrived in this country,
04:22which was at Christmas, which are, I think that's why times have passed with a lot of nostalgia,
04:26because it was to feel happy, because I saw lights around me, trees, music, dance,
04:32and at the same time I missed and longed so much to be able to spend those moments with my loved ones who were in Cuba.
04:39The compass was very important to me, where I was showing it the day I presented the book,
04:46and I wanted every person who attended the book presentation to take that famous compass,
04:51which was the earth compass, which obviously took us to the wrong place.
04:56Thanks to that earth compass, we were lost for five days, very desperate, because we didn't know what was going on.
05:05I think the compass is very symbolic, because it was also a demonstration for us that we shouldn't give up,
05:12and no matter how desperate you are, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
05:16When we realized that it was an earth compass,
05:19well, at that moment, although we were afraid because we thought we would never get anywhere,
05:24we knew that God was with us, we had faith, and I believe that faith cannot be lost.
05:29And it is very important for me to address children,
05:32because as a mother, it is a book that I wrote not only for my children,
05:37I also wrote it for that child, like me, who at some point has been able to feel alone,
05:42who may not have the necessary tools to say,
05:46wow, what am I going to do now in this country where I don't speak English, where I don't know anyone,
05:50where I feel fear, because in our countries,
05:53if there is something that one feels despite so many shortcomings,
05:57it is that we are all in the same position, no one has anything,
06:01everyone feels alone, sad, abandoned,
06:04but when one arrives in this country that knows so many people from different cultures,
06:07from different countries, one feels a little lost too,
06:11because the streets are big, because there are many businesses,
06:13because there are many buildings, because there is a lot of everything.
06:16So I tell that child who at some point has felt alone, sad,
06:21that he should not despair, that he should trust why his mother and father,
06:26or why a relative, made the decision to bring them to a country of opportunity,
06:30that he should think that where he will be best raised, cared for,
06:34and where he can be best trained as a professional,
06:36or as whatever he decides to be in this life,
06:38it will be in a country like this, like the United States of Opportunities.
06:41So for me it is important that any child takes that message, including mine.
06:47And it has been a great pleasure for me to tell you a little bit about a dream boat.
06:51I hope this story also motivates you to move forward,
06:54to fight for what you want, to fight for your dreams.
06:57And well, you can get my story on Amazon,
07:00also on jenisvelacevedo.us, on Barnes & Nobles, and on Books & Books.