Part 1, Spring Migration Summary

Havana, Cuba. March, 1991. Reina slowly recovers from her injuries at her home. She still suffers from insomnia. When Reina had returned from the hospital, the local Committee for the Defense of the Revolution had insisted she volunteer for night duty since she was awake most nights. She refused. She no longer believed in the revolution and wanted nothing to do with its cause.

Each night, Reina roams through the rooms of her apartment reliving the days after her mother's death. She remembers accompanying her father to the funeral home with a small prized snakeskin to place in his mother's coffin. Her father would not let her near her mother's coffin. When he was not looking, Reina snuck into the embalming chamber. She saw her mother, with a gaping wound in her throat, lying on the table. Reina tried to...