About

In Scattered, Chris Garcia looks back at the life of his late father, Andrés, who fled Cuba during Fidel Castro’s dictatorship at considerable cost to his mental health. Garcia is a gifted host, thanks to his experience as a standup comedian and his talent for impersonations, and he brings to life Andrés’s ambitions, his goofy sense of humor, and his once-in-a-lifetime love for his wife. As Garcia retraces key events in his father’s life—cutting sugarcane at a forced-labor camp, suffering through electroshock therapy, immigrating to California, and being laid off from a well-paying job in America—the story drives home the sense of loss that comes with leaving one’s country. Scattered is a touching account of family, love, and sacrifice, shot through with the lingering bittersweetness of finally getting what you want in America, but finding that it’s not quite everything you dreamed it would be.

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