Rubble : The Search for a Haitian Boy

by Marquez Stathis, Sandra

• ISBN13: 9780762772650
• ISBN10: 0762772654
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-06
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

Writing as a mother, journalist, and former human rights observer, Sandra Marquez Stathis takes readers on a powerful journey to Haiti, where she lived and worked for four years in the 1990s. Returning in the aftermath of the deadly 7.0 quake that struck in January 2010, she embarks on a quest in search of Junior Louis, an unforgettable boy who was seven years old and homeless when she first met him many years ago. Marquez is determined to find out if he has survived the quake and to express her gratitude for his enduring friendship. In so doing, she learns that Junior's story is Haiti's story. In this vivid narrative, Marquez chronicles her soul-etching and life-altering years living and working in Haiti, her deepening friendship with Junior, who is like a son to her, and her post-earthquake journey to find him in the rubble. Rubbleis both an eyes-wide-open portrait of Haiti--its beauty and its pathos--and a tender, emotional story about the author's lifelong bond with an extraordinary young boy.

Author Biography

Sandra Marquez Stathis has worked as a staff writer for People magazine, the Miami Herald, the Associated Press, and Reuters. She lived in Haiti for four years as a human rights observer and press officer for a United Nations mission. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Table of Contents

Je (Eyes)
Meeting Junior	p. 2
Becoming an Observer	p. 7
Initiation to the Violence	p. 21
Dark Days	p. 32
Democracy and the Almost Adoption	p. 42
Paradox Island	p. 52
Breakfast at the Montana	p. 63
Ké (Heart)
Cathedral in the Sky	p. 70
Return	p. 76
The "New" Haiti	p. 83
Finding Junior	p. 94
Reunion	p. 104
Dimanche	p. 113
Sunday Dinner	p. 134
Hotel Montana	p. 139
Junior's Journey	p. 147
Nature and Art	p. 159
Return II	p. 172
Zwazo	p. 189
Anniversary	p. 203
The English Teacher	p. 230
New Beginning	p. 258
Acknowledgments	p. 293
About the Author	p. 294
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

My four years living here taught me that Haiti is an exacting and unorthodox teacher. Together with her assistants Love, Fear, Beauty, Humor, and Death, she teaches you to see duality, embrace contradiction, and to surrender to pain and hardship in life. Because she saw that I was young and inexperienced when I first arrived on her soil, she sent a special young guide to help me learn these lessons. He was a seven-year-old homeless boy and his name was Junior Louis. And now, Haiti seemed to be leading me back to him again.