About the author
About the Author
Mr. Potes is a Colombian-American writer whose style borrows from classical and modern English- and Spanish-language literature elements that he blends seamlessly into the dynamic flow of this, his first novel-length effort after writing poetry and short stories in both languages since his early youth.
Following an eclectic sojourn through North and South American universities, he threw his creative energies into a period of youthful idealism eventually eroded by disillusionment with the objects of his inspiration—yet drawing from them a shrewd awareness of the American cultural landscape and keen insight into the subtle boundaries that make the “Anglo” and “Latino” worlds so uniquely different.
This cross-cultural sensibility is an underlying theme that bridges the two realms with wry allusion to the “magical realism” of his childhood literary heroes, and the graceful musicality of his English, set to an idiomatic register in keeping with modern reading tastes. Also present between the lines, as a not-so-silent character in the novel, is the inexorable transcendence of human passion.
Mr. Potes’s marriage to his high school sweetheart left him three children who bring to completion, with this book and a dogwood planted in the front yard of the Virginia home they used to share, the ancient Chinese recipe for a full and meaningful life. With Guantánamo he offers the reader a bittersweet, mirthful look at life’s endless surprises. As Silvia, his female character, says, “It’s all culture.”