Barefoot to Freedom
Hildy Valenzuela Wendtland is a Cuban-American author and Realtor living in the United States.
Book Excerpt
I will die inside this embassy colonel, but my children will be free, and I will die happy.
Hildy’s father
On April 1st, 1980, a bus with hopeful asylees crashed into the Peruvian embassy in Havana, Cuba. Within 48 hours, over 10,800 people occupied every inch of the 28,000-square-foot embassy. Among them was a fourteen-year-old girl clinging to her younger brother. Relying on the wisdom of her father, Hildy also clung to hope. Hope that would see them through appalling conditions, near starvation, and the unpredictable desperation of those around them.
This true story is the detailed truth about the struggle of free thinkers, intellectuals, the clergy, and the gay and lesbian community. It is revealed as asylees wait for freedom or death. Hilda’s life experiences in Cuba as a child during the Cold War and the cruelties of communism toward nongovernment sympathizers are woven into this tale of survival.
Barefoot to Freedom is a real-life example of the perils of collective thinking and the threat of contemporary socialism. A must-read warning of what happens when democracy is not defended.
Wentworth Norton Group is happy to host Hilda at our events. Her detailed stories hit with an impact born from both her brutal honesty and the observations she makes about what she and her family struggled through.
I never wanted to go back to the horrible place that gave me so many nightmares. During the covid lockdown, I started wetting small anecdotes about what happened during the embassy occupation. Every time I had to describe a specific hard situation, I gave up. A few days later I started again. I asked my husband not to mention the story again. I threw manuscripts in the trash, determined not to follow through. It has been the hardest thing I have ever done. Looking back. I am glad I did it.
Hildy Valenzuela Wendtland
