By Bessy Reyna\u00a0<\/a>\/CTLatinoNewa.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n A <\/span>few years<\/span> ago<\/span>,<\/span> I <\/span>came across books written by <\/span>Margarita Engle<\/span>, <\/span>and was enthralled \u00a0by the stories she was writing about, and <\/span>in <\/span>particular<\/span>,<\/span> how she was able <\/span>—<\/span>not only to introduce us to men and women who changed history<\/span>—<\/span> but also how beautiful and inspiring <\/span>were <\/span>th<\/span>e <\/span>stories of<\/span> the<\/span> many<\/span> people she has rescued from oblivion, by bringing them back to life and giving us a sense of the<\/span>ir<\/span> world <\/span>and<\/span> the times <\/span>they lived in.<\/span><\/p>\n \u200b I think that <\/span>we,\u00a0<\/span>as Latinos, don’t<\/span> know<\/span> enough about the people whose struggles l<\/span>iberated us during <\/span>wars of <\/span>independence <\/span>from Spain<\/span>; <\/span>or<\/span> against <\/span>the <\/span>dictatorships<\/span> suffocating our countries. We also don’t know much<\/span> about our writers and philosophers whose work helped many<\/span>\u00a0of us, forge a cultural identity. <\/span>And what about <\/span>th<\/span>e <\/span>lives of the <\/span>workers <\/span>who contributed to <\/span>amazing projects like <\/span>the building of the Panama Canal<\/span>, railroads and our most important buildings. <\/span>Thankfully, <\/span>we are fortunate to have <\/span>writers <\/span>who <\/span>like <\/span>Engle<\/span>,<\/span> and <\/span>Cristina Garcia<\/span>, whose book <\/span>“Monkey Hunting”<\/span> introduces us to a Chinese <\/span>man<\/span> who immigrated to Cuba in 1857, only to become <\/span>a <\/span>slave in a sugar plantation<\/span>, or a book <\/span>like <\/span>Jaime <\/span>Manrique’s<\/span> “Our Lives Are the Rivers”<\/span> an exceptional historical fiction in which he narrates the extraordinary life of Manuela Saenz, who was<\/span>,<\/span> and still <\/span>is, <\/span>mostly<\/span> known as “Bolivar’s mistress<\/span>.<\/span>” <\/span>This brave woman’s <\/span>struggles and sacrifices to help achieve \u00a0<\/span>“el <\/span>sue\u00f1o<\/span> Bolivariano\u201d\u00a0<\/span>are hardly ever mentioned. <\/span>Sadly, <\/span>Saenz<\/span>, <\/span>died <\/span>as <\/span>an indigent, and was buried in an unmarked grave. <\/span>These, and many other writers should be honored and celebrated because they are <\/span>the ones making sure our history is alive, because they are <\/span>willing to <\/span>spend countless hours travelling and researching <\/span>the <\/span>lives<\/span> of people who <\/span>—<\/span>most probably<\/span>—<\/span> we would have never known about<\/span> had it not been for their books<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n Right now <\/span>we are celebrating <\/span>African-American History Month<\/span>, which I consider to embrace all of the Americas<\/span>. I have written in the past about the many accomplishes of Latinos of African descent, but this time<\/span> I would like to present to our readers, <\/span>a more personal story, a man who is <\/span>one of the<\/span> many<\/span> extraordinary people <\/span>Margarita E<\/span>ngle<\/span> has written about. His name <\/span>was Juan Francisco Manzano,<\/span>\u00a0and he was a poet slave in Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n