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By J. Adrian Betancourt, Host
The Miami Book Hub
The first episode of The Miami Book Hub — my new podcast on CNEWS TV — began the way
many Miami stories do: with friendship, community, and a shared passion that bridges
backgrounds and perspectives. “I couldn’t think of anyone better to have on my first show than
my guest to my right,” I said at the top of the inaugural program. “He is not only an author, but
he is my friend and my neighbor.”
That neighbor is Adolfo “Al” Ovies — a Cuban-American author with a deep and uncommon
expertise in Civil War history. Ovies has already published two volumes of his multi-book series
The Boy Generals, with a third scheduled for release July 15, and a fourth unrelated book on the
Bay of Pigs conflict in progress. Despite living in South Florida, far from the famous fields of
Gettysburg, he traces his lifelong fascination to an early experience that left a permanent mark.
“We left Cuba in 1960… I was six or seven,” Ovies recalled. His grandmother, married to an
American, lived in Connecticut, and the family settled there after arriving in the U.S. “The
Gettysburg battlefield was pretty close by… and once I went to Gettysburg, I just got bit big
time by the Civil War bug.”
That “bug” came with a specific focus: George Armstrong Custer — a figure most Americans
associate with Little Bighorn. But Ovies’ work digs into the deeper, earlier story. “The little
people may know about Custer is ‘Custer’s Last Stand,’ but there’s so much more to the man,” I
noted, setting the stage for Ovies to explain how The Boy Generals is less about legend and
more about the volatile human dynamics behind military history.
“It’s… a double biography,” Ovies explained, describing the twin anchors of his trilogy: Custer
and fellow cavalry officer Wesley Merritt. What makes the relationship fascinating, he said, is
that it’s both central and surprisingly underexplored. “There’s hundreds of books written about
George Custer and only one book about Wesley Merritt,” he said. That imbalance, he realized,
was the edge he needed — the narrative pivot that would make his series distinct.
Their rivalry began with rank and never cooled. “Custer was really rankled by the fact that…
Wesley Merritt was always Custer’s superior officer,” Ovies said. “He just hated that and he did
everything he could to the point of insubordination.” When asked about the flashpoint, Ovies
pointed to the Appomattox campaign, describing how Custer, ordered to yield the lead to
another division, refused. “He spurred his horses onto a gallop to ensure that Merritt would
never get back to him,” Ovies said. “It was just continuous throughout the war.”
Part of what gives the series its texture is Ovies’ devotion to firsthand accounts and battlefield
research — something I’ve witnessed as his neighbor. “You must have a love of research to
have done as much as you have,” I told him, recalling years of watching him disappear into
sources and drafts. Ovies credited his late friend and mentor, historian Eric J. Wittenberg, who
authored more than 23 books on Union cavalry operations. “He mentored me,” Ovies said.
Together, they traveled to major Civil War sites — from Gettysburg to Cedar Creek, Winchester,
and beyond — then debated the historical record late into the night. Wittenberg even wrote a
foreword for one of Ovies’ books.
Ovies’ interest in military history didn’t stop with the 1860s. In a twist worthy of a novelist, a
Civil War photography expert he met at a Gettysburg bar sparked his next major project: a
military history of the Bay of Pigs invasion. “You live in Miami, you speak Spanish… you should
consider writing something about the Bay of Pigs,” Ovies recalled being told. The result is
Beaches of Glory: A Military History of the Bay of Pigs, now in progress and built on interviews
with veterans of the famous conflict.
“One of the key points is the fact that I interviewed close to two dozen of the Bay of Pigs
veterans,” he said, emphasizing the human stories behind the historical headlines. He describes
his approach as intentionally nonpartisan. “I’ve kind of done away with the politics of it,” Ovies
said. “My Bay of Pigs book focuses very heavily on the three days of the actual battle.”
When the conversation shifted to advice for writers, Ovies distilled the craft into a single
principle: persistence. “You have to stick to it every day,” he said. “Writer’s block… is a real
thing. And you just have to plow through it… you can always go back and edit what you’ve
written, but you’ve got to continue forging ahead.”
That hit home. I admitted that I’ve been there too — months of stalled progress, followed by a
return when the words finally flowed. Ovies agreed that sometimes stepping away can be
productive. “The time spent away from it kind of cleansed my mind a little bit,” he said, adding
that his third volume may be “some of the best writing I’ve done.”
As The Miami Book Hub begins its mission — connecting Miami’s literary community through
authors, publishers, bookstores, institutions, and readers — it felt fitting to start with a
neighbor’s story that began far from Miami, then found its voice here. After all, as I said at the
outset, even if Al and I don’t share many opinions, “one thing we share” is simple and powerful:
“a love of books.” Well, that and a crumbling fence in need of repair, but that’s between us
(pun intended).
You can purchase copies of Adolfo “Al” Ovies’ trilogy, The Boy Generals at:
www.savasbeatie.com
To watch the full interview and explore additional episodes of The Miami Book Hub — Miami’s home for readers, writers, and literary resources — please visit the YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@J.AdrianBetancourt/playlists
