The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera

A historical novel that features a group of people whose histories are not talked about very much. Puerto Rico has been taken over by the Spanish, Mother Nature has given it a thrashing and now the Americans have put their claim in. They cling to the land growing coffee and whatever else they can as well as working whatever jobs just to survive. Vicente and Valentina are out of options so they leave their beloved country and travel to Hawaii to harvest sugar cane. As if the horrific journey there wasn't enough they now find themselves living under another kind of slavery and the brutality that made them leave Puerto Rico. Poignant and heartbreaking filled with just enough Spanish to feel authentic but not too much that a non-Spanish speaker won't understand.