Betty Viamontes

Waiting on Zapote Street: Love and Loss in Castro’s Cuba

This book is based on a true story. Rio and Laura, two people from opposite backgrounds, meet in Havana, Cuba in January, 1961. A single, unselfish decision to help a stranger shatters their lives. The revolution they unwittingly helped solidify creates a powerful and myopic socialist government which tears them apart. Neither one of them is prepared to face the roller-coaster ride their lives become. Neither one of them could have imagined how much their love for each other would be tested, or for how long, or the impact their choices would have on their families.

About the author:

Betty Viamontes was born in Havana, Cuba. In 1980, at age 15, at the height of a massive Cuban exodus from the Port of Mariel in Havana, she immigrated to the United States with her mother and siblings. Betty Viamontes completed graduate studies at the University of South Florida and moved on to a successful career in Accounting. She has published several short stories, but this is her first novel. Currently, she is working on a second book. Betty Viamontes lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband and family.