An immigration story that spans generations.
A human story that transcends borders.
What happens when your homeland turns on you?
In From the Dictators’ Shadows – A Family’s Journey, author Maritza Durán lays bare the emotional heart of families forced to flee their homelands under the weight of state-sanctioned violence.
In the island nation of Puerto Rey, the Burgos Beltrán family is caught between patriotism and persecution—heroes of a young Republic one day, enemies of the state the next.
This multigenerational novel follows six siblings through the island’s rise and collapse into dictatorship. Some will heed the call of human justice, risking their lives to fight one of the most sadistic rulers in Latin American history. Others will find safety in North America where they forge new lives. All are marked by what they’ve lost—and what they must rebuild.
A legacy told in
three voices
Three of the Burgos Beltrán women—Rosina, Petra, and Maritza—share the family’s journey:
A devastating coup.
The murder of loved ones.
The trauma of migration.
And the audacity to begin again.
As immigrants in North America, they fight prejudice and the internalized grief of leaving family behind. Yet they also find freedom—and become entrepreneurs, mentors, and protectors for those who will come next.
Through fictionalized memory, the Burgos Beltrán family story carries the weight of real history—honoring the people who risked everything, and the descendants still shaped by that past.
Honoring the Resistance of Those Who Live Under and Fight Authoritarian Regimes
Some were part of a direct underground resistance against the regime. Some spoke in whispers at home about the abuses of the regime. Others camouflaged resistance in the form of passive non-cooperation. Others risked their lives in combat.
All faced imprisonment, torture, disappearance, or death if caught.
This story honors the bravery, legacy, and sacrifice of all those who stay behind.
A Story from the Past, a Warning for the Present
About power. About loss. About migration.
These are not just stories of the past.
These are events happening today.
Around the world, terrorist governments, poverty, and war continue to tear people from their homelands. The migration crisis of our new millennium is not a single moment—it is the ongoing story of families like the Burgos Beltráns, seeking safety, freedom, and dignity.
In the U.S., thousands of immigrants—many fleeing regimes just like the one that shadows this story—now face detention, discrimination, and danger in the very places they hoped would protect them.
This book gives voice to the faceless. To those who have been disappeared, tortured, or forced to start over in places where they are told they don’t belong.
About the Author
Maritza Durán is a writer and researcher who investigates the impacts of global migration. The daughter of immigrants, Maritza was raised between two worlds—one of city sidewalks and big possibilities, the other of Caribbean sun and whispered family memories.
As a child, she was haunted by a dream: a veranda, a family dressed in white, the flash of gunfire. Over time, she came to understand this dream as memory. In the quiet of kitchens and the space between conversations, her family’s history revealed itself.
From the Dictators’ Shadows is her attempt to honor the truth embedded in those stories. Blending family history, historical record, and imagination, Maritza writes to give voice to those displaced by political violence and honor those who stayed to fight authoritarianism in their homeland.
For interview requests & media inquiries, contact: fromthedictatorsshadows@gmail.com
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