Chocoliza City

About the Book

A long time ago, when my children were small and could not fall asleep, especially the youngest one constantly coughing , my wife would cuddle and try by all means to get them to sleep but with no results. So extremely exhausted, she would pass the task on to me. I would start telling them whatever came to mind, creating these fabulous stories from my imagination until they fell into a deep sleep. My wife never forgot and often insisted I write a children's book. So now at eighty-two years old, inspired by her and being a patient of dialysis, I decided to write a book where a portion of the proceeds will go to the National Kidney Foundation. So I have written for you Chocoliza City, an unusual and bilingual children's book for ages four to twelve and for adults with sweetness in their hearts.

About the Author

Giovanni R. Grullart was born in Havana, Cuba, where he started his career at the age of six in a duo act with his sister Palmira. His first musical was Pinocchio, where he played the part of Jiminy Cricket in the Fausto Theater directed by the famous composer Isolina Carrillo. Performing with the best artists of the era like Maria Teresa Vera , Sindo Garay, Trio Matamoros, La Sonora Matancera, Miguelito Valdes, Las Anaqaona. Giovanni and his sister go separate ways as she went on to be teacher and he became the character Negrito Giovanni, with accomplished success thanks to the support of his parents Jesus and Juana. He performed at the Bam Bu with Celia Cruz, and at the age of sixteen, he was hired by the Tropicana Cabaret as part of the Josephine Baker Show and was a huge hit at Ali Bar together with the incredible legendary Benny More. Giovanni was made an exclusive feature on all the TV shows by Pumarejo, where he became the favored among TV audiences. The journalist Agustin Tamargo in the magazine Gente wrote “the most moving moments in Cuban television are the ones where Giovanni was on stage.” He starts to travel in USA, St. Domingo, Puerto Rico, Mexico, where he acted in the movie Rumba Caliente with Lidia Prado and Resort. He travels to Central and South America where he marries and creates the duo Giovanni and Nina. They travel to Canada then to New York to start performing with the Perez Prado Revue, La Lupe, Lola Flores, Jorge Mistral, Tito Puente at the Palladium in Broadway, and Tony Bennett in Boston. The culmination of Giovanni’s career was when he performed at Carnegie Hall accompanied by the iconic Baserba Soler in1969.