Our church’s longtime friend, Rev. Stan Dotson, will be giving us an update in worship this Sunday on our Cuban friends and neighbors. Immediately following the service, Stan will offer a reading and presentation from his new book, Where Are They Going? Stories and Backstories of Five Cubans, in the Gathering Place Room. Stan will have signed copies of his book for sale ($15, paid for by cash, check, Venmo, or Cashapp)
Stan and Kim Dotson are longtime friends and partners in our ministry alongside Kerygma Baptist Church in Holguin, Cuba. The Dotsons’ love for the Cuban people, and their desire to connect churches from our two countries, make them beloved traveling companions and leaders when we have sent teams to Holguin. We are honored to hear a brief update from Stan in our service and look forward to his presentation after worship this Sunday.
About Stan’s book, Where Are They Going? Stories and Backstories of Five Cubans
Where Are They Going narrates the comings and goings of five Cubans who represent some of the great cultural diversity making up cubania (the essence of being Cuban), with ancestral ties to five different parts of the world. It is an alternative account to the stereotypical storyline about Cuba we often hear in the US media, that of refugees fleeing a dictatorship in search of a promised land. The largely untold story is that of people who find promise in their own patria, their homeland, despite the challenging circumstances they find there. Here you will find five Cubans who do not appear to feel "trapped" in tyranny; each of them has traveled the world and each made the decision to go back to their Cuban homes. The book not only tells their stories, but also narrates the imagined backstories of those ancestors who left their own homelands to come and contribute to the rich culture and resilient spirit that defines what it means to be Cuban. Listen to their stories and you might find yourself pulled away from your own patria, attracted to a land and a life that could prove to be well worth whatever challenges it poses.
-Book listing on Amazon here.
Book Review from The Rev. Dr. Paula Clayton Dempsey (Pulpit guest at First Baptist Church, Sylva in 2013):
"Stan Dotson, thank you for sharing your insight into the cultural threads that make up the exquisite tapestry of the Cuban people--with particular attention given to those who have responded to the call to stay in the land they love! These stories, imaginatively interwoven with history, literature, music and spirituality, demonstrate what it truly means to be a friend of the Cuban people. Thank you for these deeper glimpses into the soul of Cuba!"