REVIEW
"Transcending the cliché of the prostitute with a heart of gold, Yousi Mazpule has created a true to modern life heroine.
Milena Campos is both flawed and fantastic, as she shines light on the injustices of family, society and state, and transforms them into the tools of her own redemption.
Milena´s story will shake you to your core. It may be a story of a woman seeking redemption, but long before the final page, you¹ll yearn to tell her, and yourself, that the only ones who should be seeking Redemption are the powers who perpetuate the social constructs that shape her heartbreaking story."
Anjanette Delgado
Author, The Heartbreak Pill
"The marvel of his gritty and propulsive first novel, Jinetera, is that right out of the gates, Yousi Mazpule has staked claim on brave new narrative territory. She's written a harrowing tale about life and survival on the mean streets of Castro's Cuba that is haunting and at times hypnotic. Here's a world that's more vivid, unnerving, and desperate than the one we're living in. The writing is savvy, insightful, and fearless. Here are people at the ends of their rope struggling desperately to hang on to dreams and to forge new lives."
John Dufresne
Author
"An interesting novel with a perspective rarely visited by the literature on this subject have been written: Milena Campos sinks into the abyss of prostitution and moral degradation defending love, looking for redemption of the dead mother's memory, trying to provide freedom to her own dreams, and that gives the protagonist and the story itself a deep breath of humanism that makes this work distinct".
Amir Valle
Author, Jinetera and Habana Babilonia
DESCRIPTION
"Jinetera, story of a Cuban prostitute" a novel set in La Habana, explores the self-discovery of Milena Campos whose mother drowned in her attempt to leave Cuba. Milena is sent to live with her mother's half sister and ends up in the hospital. There she meets Kassandra Martinez, a young prostitute (jinetera), who is obsessed with escaping Cuba. Milena turns to prostitution and...
About the Author: Yousi Mazpule is a professor of English at Johnson & Wales University. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and has been published in several magazines including Generation ñ, Prick of the Spindle, Nanofiction and Coral Gables Living. Jinetera is her first novel. She lives in Miami, FL
