Historical Note
This poem was inspired by the childhood of a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba’s traditional taboo against female drummers. In 1932, at the age of ten, Millo Castro Zaldarriaga performed with her older sisters as Anacaona, Cuba’s first “all-girl dance band.” Millo became a world- famous musician, playing alongside all the American jazz greats of the era. At age fifteen, she played her bongó drums at a New York birthday celebration for U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, where she was enthusiastically cheered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. There are now many female drummers in Cuba. Thanks to Millo’s courage, becoming a drummer is no longer an unattainable dream for girls on the island.
Acknowledgments
I thank God for creative dreams. I am indebted to the wonderful autobiography written by Millo’s sister: Anacaona: The Amazing Adventures of Cuba’s First All-Girl Dance Band by Alicia Castro, with Ingrid Kummels and Manfred Schäfer. Special thanks to my family, my editors Reka Simonsen and Jeannette Larson, and designer Elizabeth Tardiff. —M.E.
The illustrations in this book were done in acrylic paint on wood board. The text type was set in Amescote. The display type was set in Cathodelic.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007. Text copyright © 2015 by Margarita Engle. Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Rafael López. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, by arrangement with HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. Printed in the U.S.A.
ISBN 978-1-338-88637-5
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