And the vast majority of immigrants who were coming from Eastern Europe were Jewish. And so there were these new laws enacted, first in 1921 and then in 1924 - which actually became the basis for immigration laws, you know, going forward for many years - that limited immigration from Eastern Europe. HAMBURGER: There was a kind of hysteria going on in the United States and in many other places - a fear that what happened in Russia with the communist revolution would happen in other places. I asked Aaron Hamburger why both women - his grandmother and the character based on her - ended up in the Caribbean on their way to the U.S. But she's diverted to Cuba, and that changes how she views the world. PFEIFFER: That picture and the tale behind it are the impetus for his latest novel, 'Hotel Cuba.' It's about a young woman named Pearl who, in the 1920s, leaves Eastern Europe's poverty and antisemitism for the United States. And that's why I was so surprised to find this image of her from 1922, which is in the book, of her dressed in full male drag. HAMBURGER: She was really kind of a wonderful presence, but I didn't really know her as a person that well, aside from, you know, the way a little boy would know his grandmother. She would make these quote-unquote 'rock cookies' that were warm and soft out of the oven and an hour later were hard as rocks. She was kind of the idea of what you would imagine a Yiddish Bubbie to be.

The author Aaron Hamburger thought his grandmother's immigration journey was worthy of a book, too, especially when he found an old photo of her that didn't quite fit with the woman he knew.ĪARON HAMBURGER: She was very loving.

Immigration stories are inspiration for countless novels.

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