Margot Pepper

by Margot Pepper
From forthcoming book, the Acrobat and Other Stories for Dark Times

When Jeb Bailey arrived at the Town Hall, the sun's implacable rays were still imprisoned behind the courtyard walls, the light only hinting at the lavender and yellow Gentec Passion Flower®, vines of Monsatano Bougainvillea® and faces of a few dozen children. It was easy to tell the novices from the veterans. They were the smaller ones prancing on the freshly swept brick tiles, gazing up at the streamers and balloons or chatting with their friends about the tremendous piñata that hung high over their heads. They especially liked this one for it had been fashioned in the image of Ronell McDonnel: the cheerful newscaster with the powdered sugar face, bulbous cherry nose and unruly gold streamers for hair.

Born in Mexico City, Margot Pepper is a bilingual educator, journalist, and author whose work has been published internationally by the Utne Reader, Counterpunch, Znet, the Monthly Review, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Rethinking Schools, City Lights, Hampton Brown, and others. Her memoir, Through the Wall (Freedom Voices, 2005), was a finalist nomination for the 2006 American Book Award. http://www.freedomvoices.org/pepper/index.htm

by Margot Pepper

For reprint requests please contact the author via wall@Freedomvoices.org

by Margot Pepper
This article was excerpted from the book September 11 and the U.S. War, Beyond the Curtain of Smoke edited by Roger Burbach and Ben Clarke
For reprint requests please contact the author via wall@Freedomvoices.org

The U.S. government and corporate media's reactions to the crimes against humanity last September 11 are giving me, the daughter of Luis Buñuel's favorite producer-- blacklisted George Pepper "Werker"-- flashbacks to the Cold War. While, as a child I could only admire the surrealist French film-maker for his swing set and director Dalton Trumbo of the Hollywood Ten for his magic tricks, I've absorbed the lessons of their legacies. If I am skeptical of unrestrained authority under the pretext of "national security"-- beside the fact that it contradicts the checks and balances allegedly inherent in our triumvirate government structure and Bill of Rights--it is because I saw first-hand how it destroyed thousands of innocent U.S. lives.

Through the Wall: A Year in Havana

By Margot Eve Pepper. Freedom Voices, 336 pages, $19.95 (paper).

Margot Eve Pepper's memoir, Through the Wall: A Year in Havana, captures Cuba during its ”special period ” in 1992, when the most austere economic measures of the island's history were ushered in. Her well-researched, witty, and thought-provoking work takes a hard look at Cuba through the eyes of someone who has lived there, not as a liberal tourist passing through on a two-week visit but as a working member of the community. Pepper takes the reader straight to Cuba ... no frills, no rose-colored glasses.

By Margot Pepper

Critical Praise
for Through the Wall

Margot Pepper's memoir propels us through the blockade to post-cold war Cuba. It's a surreal world where high-ranking officials are required to pick up hitch-hikers. Root canals, cosmetic surgery and graduate school are free, but toilet paper is exorbitant. There's no income tax nor homelessness, yet no house-paint either. As the story unfolds, Margot pursues a passionate love affair with a penniless Mexican poet who shakes up her views about Cuba. With cinematic vividness, Through the Wall reveals the failures and successes of one of the few functioning alternatives to corporate-run government, and draws out lessons that will be embraced by all who believe another world is possible.