A Haitian Family

I am reading Tracy Kidder's book, Mountains Beyond Mountains about Paul Farmer, an amazing doctor who cures people in Haiti of infectious diseases. My women's book club was going to discuss the book and I wanted to know more about Haiti.
I found this book, A Haitian Family as part of a Journey Between Two Worlds series. The story part of the book focuses on nine year old Gregory who came to the United States as a refugee. That means he immigrated to our country because he was escaping persecution in his own country or rather his father was. Gregory's family arrived in New York by plane but that is not how they started their journey here. They left Haiti on a very crowded flimsy boat and ended up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after being picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard. They lived in a refugee camp for several months awaiting for permission to continue on to the U.S.
This book also explains the history of Haiti. It begins the story in 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived in Hispaniola, which is what the island was named before, and continues to 1996 when René Préval became president. Now Haiti occupies about one-third of the island on the west and the country of Dominican Republic is on the eastern side.
You'll find out why Gregory's family was being persecuted and learn a lot about the struggles and culture of the people who live very close to our southern state of Florida.