Just in time to kick-off National Hispanic Heritage Month, Cuban-American author Alina García-Lapuerta will be in Tampa today for a talk and signing event for her book, La Belle Créole: The Cuban Countess Who Captivated Havana, Madrid, and Paris, at Inkwood Books at 7 p.m.
Although National Hispanic Heritage Month does not start until Sept. 15, Florida native Alina García-Lapuerta's talk and signing event is a great way to commence a month filled with history and appreciation for Hispanic roots.
The Cuban-American biographer spent 7 years of her life in London researching the life of Cuban Countess Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo, a nineteenth-century daughter of the Creole aristocracy who lived an unusually modern and sophisticated life amongst the Parisian elite.
García-Lapuerta brings forth the very first complete English-language biography of la Belle Créole; through her extended research, the biographer was able to unravel untold stories, memoirs, travel writings and very personal correspondence that according to Publishers Weekly, reveal the "lesser-known aspects of 19th-century transatlantic culture and the roles powerful women were able to play in it."
Join García-Lapuerta as she discusses how her own Hispanic background influenced years of research about a 19th century woman who might have more in common with the exile Cuban society today than we could ever think possible. Her reading will take place tonight at Inkwood Books at 216 S Armenia Ave, Tampa, at 7 p.m.
