Exile

My brother and I have spent most of our lives in neighborhoods and towns where we were the only Cubans. You can imagine how excited we were to discover the wealth of Cuban/CubanAmerican blogs on the Internet. It was the Internet equivalent of a physical community. Despite our differences, we are all united by a common heritage, a legacy of loss, and a burning desire.All of which reminds me of one of those ideas that keeps rattling around my often too busy brain, that of exile. There is obviously the physical separation from the mother country; but at least in my life, there is the sense of being different from those around me, although I lead an ordinary "American" life, whatever that is; and finally there is the sense of alienation. It's as if there are concentric circles of exile in my life, and I suspect those of others.