Yes, it’s an interview with a gusano. Yes, his family were business owners. Here’s the peach:
“One day, my sister came home and exclaimed, ‘Fidel is better than Jesus!’ In school they had asked the kindergartners to close their eyes and pray to Jesus for ice cream. When they opened their eyes – nothing. Then they closed their eyes again and prayed to Fidel for ice cream, and … surprise! Ice cream cups on their desks! I remember my mother’s reaction: ‘Helado! Que rico!’ She totally avoided any other comment for fear of whatever she said making it back to my sister’s teacher.”
“In Cuba, we were upper-middle-class,” Vivian said. “My grandfather was a bank vice president; my father worked for another bank and also wrote comedy sketches. We lived with extended family in a chic apartment. My sister and I had our own room; my brother had his own; we had a maid who lived in a small room behind the kitchen. She was a Spaniard and blind in one eye. I was a little scared of her.”
