Attachment to Sefardic tradition is the tie that binds four girls in this novel

Across So Many Seas, Ruth Behar, Nancy Paulsen Books, New York, NY, 2023, 258 pgs. $17.90.

By Daniel Santacruz

Four countries. Four characters. Four different experiences of the Sefardic diaspora. That sums up this engaging novel, which starts with Bienvenida, a 12-year-old girl from a Sefardic family who has lived i n Toledo, Spain, in a house that has been in her mother’s family for generations.

Although a work of fiction, Behar’s book uses key historical documents to paint a realistic portrait of the Expulsion from Spain in 1492, which sets the book in motion.

Among them are The Expulsion 1492 Chronicles: An Anthology of Medieval Chronicles Relating to the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal, selected and edited by the late David Raphael, and The Edict of Expulsion, a translation of which can be found in English on the Internet.

Behar, born in Havana and an anthropology professor at the University of Michigan, has also peppered the facts surrounding the Expulsion with songs popular in Sefardic communities, such as “En el mar hay una torre,” “Durme, durme,” and “¿Por qué no cantas, galana?”

After years in Naples, the next stop in the journey of Bienvenida’s descendants is Turkey, where they settled in mass in the 1500s, bringing with them their customs, their foods and their beloved language, Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish.

Set in Istanbul in 1923, Part Two features 12-year-old Reina as its main character. On one unfortunate occasion the girl goes against her father’s wishes and he banishes her to Cuba, where she marries a Sefardic man and starts a new life.

On the island, Reina’s daughter, Allegra, is seduced by the Fidel Castro revolution, especially the Literacy Campaign of 1961, in which thousands of volunteers participated. To give this period more realism, Behar quotes from two actual speeches the Comandante gives them in 1961.

But once the regime’s campaign against business and private property begins, life for Cubans becomes difficult. Allegra leaves Cuba in 1961 on a program called Pedro Pan, which airlifts thousands of unaccompanied children to the United States, leaving her parents behind.

The Palace of the Alharmbra, in Granada, Spain, where the Expulsion Decree was signed in 1492 (StockCake.com).

A saga that begins in 1492 comes full circle when 12-year-old Paloma, Allegra’s daughter, travels to Toledo in 2003 with her parents and her abuela Reina to look for her roots. There she makes a fascinating discovery.

Behar’s Ladino-speaking abuela, born in the Turkish town of Silivri, inspired her to write the book, she explains in the Author’s Note. A photograph of her abuela and abuelo, taken in Havana around 1928, illustrates this chapter.

Lively dialogue and a well-researched plot make this book a must-read to understand several little-known facts of Sefardic history. A common thread goes though the stories of Bienvenida, meaning “welcome” in Spanish, Reina, Allegra and Paloma: attachment to their Sefardic roots and love of music.

The Sources section is a practical guide to help the reader put the plot into context.

Behar, who has lived in Mexico and Spain, is an award-winner writer, author of Letters from Cuba, Tía Fortuna’s New Home and An Island Called Home.

September 15, 2024