Gloria Estefan to Host Private Book Launch for SWEET MARY
June 29, 2009From The Miami Herald‘s TALK OF OUR TOWN . . .
FACT AND FICTION
Gloria Estefan is hosting a private book launch party for Liz Balmaseda on July 8 at the Eden Roc. Garcia-Perez will be there.
Plot synopsis from Publishers Weekly: ”. . . Gun-toting DEA agents burst into the house of Dulce Maria “Mary” Guevara, a divorced Miami, Fla., Realtor, and arrest her, having mistaken Mary for cocaine queen bee Maria Guevara Portilla. The charges are eventually dropped, but the stigma remains. . . . Mary’s boss puts her on mandatory leave and her ex-husband persuades a judge to give him full custody of their young son.” A desperate Mary hunts down her drug-dealing nemesis in an effort to reclaim her life.
The Herald reported the real incident June 28, 2003, in this column: Virginia Fatima Garcia-Perez of Kendall, who sold paper towels and toilet tissue to independent grocers, was making lunch for her young son when three U.S. marshals knocked at her door. They had a warrant for a Virginia Tirado Garcia – conspiracy to distribute cocaine from a ’93 indictment out of Dallas.
Garcia-Perez tried in vain to convince them they had the wrong woman. They hauled her off in shackles and booked her into the Federal Detention Center, where she was strip searched. She remained in lockup for two days before her release on a $100,000 signature bond pledging assets. Fifteen days later, the feds ‘fessed up to their error, and a judge quashed the arrest.
Garcia-Perez, 41, who now sells bottled water to grocery chains, said Friday she remains haunted by the episode. ”I still have backlash.” She carries around court documents to prove she was cleared.
On July 14, the book release date, Balmaseda appears at Books & Books’ in Coral Gables for an 8 p.m. reading and signing.
By the way, Balmaseda’s pal Gloria Estefan is hosting a private book launch party July 8 at the Eden Roc. Garcia-Perez will be there.
