IRIS My Story

The story is about a young man called Pedro Hidalgo who has a vision impairment and this vision impairment is characterized by colored spots that randomly appear in his line of sight. As he grows older and starts going to school, his eyesight becomes worse and his mother grows concerned. She wishes to take him to United States of America before it gets worse, but his country, Cuba, is undergoing a crisis and it was very difficult to leave.

They eventually do manage to leave but when they find a doctor that is competent enough to help, he says that it is too late for Pedro to recover from his condition. In light of this situation, Pedro's mother decides to enroll him into a school for visually impaired children called the New York institute of the education of the blind. From there Pedro details his life at the school where he spent 10 years. Pedro talks about the difficulty of adjusting to America as he did not know English very well. He has many fond memories from his prepubescent to adult years. He also discusses the many historical events that took place, as it was a very volatile time in Cuba and the United States.

What stands out most in this book is how his mother has been his biggest supporter throughout his journey of moving to and growing up in America. He also details his time spent on the Rowing Team of blind students, job hunting as a visually impaired person while still in high school, enrolling into university to further his education, and developing relationships with girlfriends

Dettagli