Edel Rodriquez’s graphic memoir Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey is a classic immigrant tale illuminating the political repression characterizing the society he escaped—and delivering a rebuke and a warning over the right-wing political threat growing in his adopted country. Born in Cuba in 1971 in a small town just outside of Havana, Rodriquez tells the story of his family’s life under the rule of Fidel Castro, recounting both the relentless repression and economic desperation the Cuban people endured under the Communist regime and his family’s desperate escape in 1980 by boat to Miami. An acclaimed illustrator, children’s author, and designer, Rodriquez combines bold black-line drawings with blocks of moody red and green to evoke his early life in rural Cuba, the dread and fear of government informers, and the humiliation and degradation his family experienced in their efforts to leave Cuba and begin a new life in the U.S. Indeed, Rodriquez brings his story right up to the present, detailing his creation of a series of provocative magazine covers and illustrations challenging the poisonous anti-immigrant rhetoric driving Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and administration. In this 11-page excerpt, Rodriquez introduces his father, Tato, describing his early years, disillusionment with Castro, and efforts to establish himself as a successful local photographer—efforts that aroused suspicion among the local Communist officials. Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriquez is out now from Metropolitan Books.