The struggle to leave Cuba and find a better life in America for their family was long and difficult, but they were determined.
This story started in 1959. Fidel Castro emerges as the new leader and president of Cuba. Fidel came with promises of revolution and an end to corruption. Life for Cubans changed in extreme ways under the Marxist-Communist party regime. Freedoms wiped away. The shortages began. Supplies and food rationing began. Long lines. Castro curtailed religious freedom. Fidel became "the Father" of the nation.
Fast forward to 1962, a young family of three saw an opportunity to leave the island of Cuba. My father Emilio, my mother Carmen, and my older brother Antonio (Tony). He was one year old at the time. With one family member safely in the United States then, Emilio petitioned to leave Cuba. We would be "sponsored" by his aunt and uncle, who lived in Pennsylvania. That petition granting the leave would be in the works for seven years. During the waiting period, it is so essential that it is kept very quiet. Do not broadcast your intentions among neighbors, employers, or friends. Otherwise, you are considered a traitor to the revolution. It is common to have your house vandalized, windows broken, your family threatened, or ostracized if word gets out that you are trying to leave.
Emilio worked for the local hospital as a switchboard operator and file clerk. Against better judgment, he did advise the hospital that he had plans to leave and move to the United States, clearly not knowing when that permission to leave would come, if ever. As a result, the hospital administration removed him from that job, fired him, and sent him to work in the fields of the state-owned agricultural farms. As the world knows, Cuba's main farm crops are sugar and tobacco. Emilio went from having a comfortable 9 to 5 job office job to working six days a week in the hot sun as a punishment for his decision to defect from the island. The family lived in Havana, and the farm was miles away in another province of Cuba. He would go months without seeing his wife and young son.
As the story goes, Carmen made a trip to the farm one occasion to bring Emilio a care package, soaps, coffee, and other small toiletries. She went to the farm's kitchen and met the head chef for all the workers. Carmen noticed that he was smoking a cigar. She asked him if he enjoyed cigars regularly, and he said yes, so she devised a plan. She told him that if she brought him some good quality cigars regularly, could he see that Emilio received a transfer to kitchen duty instead of working in the fields? Fieldwork was backbreaking work. The plan worked. Within a week, Emilio transferred to the kitchen, helping the chef and making meals for all the workers. He would not find out until later that Carmen had bribed the head chef with cigars to secure an easier job for him on the farm. Emilio worked there for several years on that farm, severely criticized for wanting to leave Cuba.
Seven long years. And then it happened. September 1969. The final approval came through, and Emilio, Carmen, and Tony received permission to leave and fly to America. That day would come on September 15, 1969. The day before, local government members are made aware that you are leaving the country and a "seal" is placed on your house, and the front door is padlocked and taped shut. The seal announces that the home and its contents are now the government's property and that no one is to enter. Before officials placed the seal on the house and locked the door, my mother salvaged and removed some items to leave with family members. Carmen did this slowly and ever so discreetly over the years, removing articles of clothing she planned to pack with them for the trip. She did this in a manner that would not arouse suspicion in anyone. If anyone knew that she moved items from the house, it would incite questions and curiosity. The remainder of the contents now became the property of the Communist Party of Cuba. Officials make an inventory of each item in the home to account for it.
And just like that, my family virtually disappeared the next day and was gone. The only indication they had left was the government seal on the front of the house and the padlock. No goodbyes to neighbors, hugs, or wishes for a better future. Carmen remembers feeling torn, and the departure would be bittersweet for her. Her mother, Cecilia, was ill and recovering from a recent heart attack. My parents decided to leave long ago, and they must proceed forward. Eventually, Cecilia would die in 1971, and Carmen could not be by her side when she passed nor attend her funeral. That heartbreak is something that is still very painful for Carmen to this day.
Hiran is a proud first-generation Cuban-American who credits his success in life, in no small part, to the courage of his parents and the sacrifices they made so their family could have a better life. Hiran wrote this story to honor that legacy.
This story was originally published on July 1, 2021.
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Next week - An American Dream. Part 2. Hard Work and Sacrifice.
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