The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

Adrianna Cuevas is an author based in Austin, Texas, who is originally from Miami, Florida. She is a first-generation Cuban American. The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez is her debut novel, and she has since authored four other novels, including Cuba in My Pocket and The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto. Her work primarily features Cuban American protagonists, drawing from her own cultural heritage.

According to a video on Cuevas’s YouTube channel, Cuevas draws on personal experience to bring Nestor’s story to life. One major influence for Cuevas is her own experience as a military spouse. In exploring Nestor’s experience as a military kid, Cuevas pulls from her emotions and experiences while her husband was deployed in Iraq. Nestor’s love of animal trivia also comes from Cuevas’s own life, as Cuevas’s son is an animal trivia fan (“The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez- Introduction.” YouTube, uploaded by Adrianna Cuevas, 23 Mar. 2020).

Another major influence is Cuevas’s Cuban American heritage. From Cuban foods to popular Cuban sayings such as “Chao, Pescao” (17), Cuevas incorporates Cuban cultural references throughout the novel. This illuminates the Cuban American experience and how Nestor’s heritage—like Cuevas’s—shapes his world. Cuevas’s lived experience also comes through in the story’s main