In the 1840s, Spaniards brought Chinese laborers as indentured servants to work in the sugar cane fields of Cuba with African slaves. In the early 1870s, Chinese also came to Cuba from California, fleeing racism and racist-fueled violence. “California’s violence must be dragon-fierce / to make so many refugees seek new homes / on this island / of war.” This historical novel-in-verse set in 1870s Cuba weaves the stories of three young people during the war for freedom from Spain, and from servitude for Cubans of Chinese and African descent. One of the principle narrators is Antonio Chuffat, the “warrior of words” from the title, a 13-year-old Afro-Cuban-Chinese boy who is free. He works for a Chinese man in Cuba writing to newspapers and powerful people in China to protest the agreement that sent the Chinese into servitude in Cuba. Antonio, a character based on an actual person, meets Wing and Fan, two wholly fictional characters, brother and sister whose family came from California. The three young people each play a different role in the fight against servitude and slavery of Chinese and Africans in Cuba in this story that illuminates intriguing and important dimensions of history. (Ages 10–14)

In a haunting yet hopeful novel in verse, award-winning author Margarita Engle tells the story of Antonio Chuffat, a young man of African, Chinese, and Cuban descent who became a champion of civil rights.

Asia, Africa, Europe—Antonio Chuffat’s ancestors clashed and blended on the beautiful island of Cuba. Yet for most Cubans in the nineteenth century, life is anything but beautiful. The country is fighting for freedom from Spain. Enslaved Africans and nearly-enslaved Chinese indentured servants are forced to work long, backbreaking hours in the fields.

So Antonio feels lucky to have found a good job as a messenger, where his richly blended cultural background is an asset. Through his work he meets Wing, a young Chinese fruit seller who barely escaped the anti-Asian riots in San Francisco, and his sister Fan, a talented singer. With injustice all around them, the three friends are determined that violence will not be the only way to gain liberty.