Cuba Libre
I am an American, born in New York City, who was raised in Coral Gables, Florida in the 1950's and 1960's.
In 1954, I flew to Havana on Eastern Airlines for the weekend with my parents and older sister. We visited the chicken market where they beheaded the poultry. We stopped at the crafts market where I obtained the hand carved, maroon maracas I still have; visited beautiful Varadero Beach, was snuck by my mother and father into Havana's Tropicana Casino. A security guard promptly told my parents that it was not the place for an eight-year old and that I had to leave.
We stayed at Hotel Nacional de Cuba, which is still regarded as one of Havana’s iconic hotels. Built in 1930, it has been the choice of celebrities. When we stayed there, it was highly regarded for its magnificent lobby, expansive grounds, and excellent service.
WAVES OF IMMIGRANTS
In 1959, Castro defeated Batista. The first to arrive were supporters of the Batista government followed by wealthy Cubans whose property had been confiscated. They were executives of U.S. companies as well as many in professional occupations.
This was the first of four major waves bringing immigrants to South Florida. By living their own interpretation of their Cuban culture, they transformed Dade County into a Latin American community. In all, more than one million arrived with the vast majority staying in South Florida.
The second wave was in the mid 1960's to the early 1970's. This was fed by Cuba’s economic hardships and the loss of political freedoms for its citizens. In 1968, Castro closed down 55,000 small businesses and eliminated almost all private property. It was now the turn of the middle, lower-middle, and skilled laborers to arrive in the States.
This was also the time of Lyndon Johnson’s “Freedom Flights.” These transported Cubans to Miami twice daily, five times per week from 1965 to 1973, bringing an estimated 300,000 refugees. It was regarded as the largest airborne refugee operation in American history.
Between April and November 1980, many fled their homeland in their homemade crafts. Freedom was regarded as more important than safety. Unfortunately, many perished when their small boats sank on their voyages from the island to Florida. Titled the Mariel Boatlift it brought a different type of immigrant with 71% being blue collar. Castro also took the opportunity to release some of the island’s criminals and mentally ill to American shores.
In 1991, the Soviet collapse affected Cuba’s economy causing it to shrink within three years as much as 40%. It resulted in riots in Havana. To reduce the pressure, Fidel Castro declared anyone who wished to leave Cuba could go. Tens of thousands left on anything that could float from truck tires to rafts.
REBIRTH
The first waves started invigorating the Miami area, a large city that had been going downhill. Flagler, Miami's Main Street, became the center of Little Havana where shops and restaurants were opened in masse. Spanish became the dominant language both for people and for signage.
Who can forget Lilla's (now gone,) a wonderful Cuban restaurant with its Palomilla steak and mountains of french fries? How about the parks dominated by the elder men playing dominoes? Cigar manufacturing factories, so prominent in Tampa, sprang up in South Florida.
The Cuban Medianoche sandwich became popular. It was named because it was a popular staple served in Cuban nightclubs around midnight. It’s ingredients are three thin slices of ham, three thin slices of roast pork, three thin slices of Swiss cheese, and three or four slices of pickles. That is all placed between medianoche bread (sweet yellow egg bread.) The sandwich is placed in a press until the cheese is melted and the bread is slightly hard.
Espresso, their strong coffee, was a staple of their lives. It was so strong that people joked that you could not leave a spoon in the coffee for more than two seconds without the spoon starting to dissolve.
A booming number of Cuban students enrolled in our schools. At Coral Gables High, an institution educating tenth through twelfth grade students, enrollment exceeded 3,000 students. Classes started and ended at three different time periods in order to meet this influx. They started at 7:35, 8:35, and 9:35 a.m. and ended at 2:15, 3:15, and 4:15 p.m. respectively. Other schools in Dade County participated in the same type of classroom scheduling.
Cubans wanted to enter the same professions they had enjoyed in Cuba - doctors, lawyers, politicians, and educators. This was not done automatically. They needed to meet licensing qualifications for these jobs. To survive, these professionals became employed in such occupations as carpenters, maids, gas station attendants, and servers in restaurants. They worked hard, pursued their dreams, and accomplished their goals of becoming the professionals they had once been.
Others became business men and women. They had learned entrepreneurial skills in Cuba and with the continuing influx of Cuban residents were successful in creating and building firms.
Today, some of the descendants of these Cubans are well known. Two of them, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, ran for the Republican presidential nominee in 2016. Others hold national office in the United States House of Representatives.
With the initial influx of the Cubans, the Black population of Miami found it increasingly difficult to obtain jobs and were twice as likely to be unemployed. New immigrants from Cuba and Haiti sought many of the positions that the Blacks had once held. Instead of being second class citizens, the Blacks became third class citizens resulting in high multiracial tensions.
IMPORTANT EVENTS
In the beginning, the Cubans believed that they would not be exiled long. They placed their hopes on the Bay of Pigs military invasion, on April 17, 1961. On that date, the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506, of 1,400 Cuban exiles, tried to liberate their country. The CIA had expected that once the men landed, the Cubans would rise to overthrow their government. Instead, the opposite occurred. The vast majority of Cubans rallied behind their government.
Castro took control of the counter attack, and in three days the fighting was over. More than a thousand men were quickly captured and imprisoned. They were later exchanged for some 50 million dollars worth of U.S. baby food, medicine, and food. With the lack of adequate air support, half the forces the CIA deemed necessary, and improper planning by Kennedy, the invasion was doomed from the beginning.
In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred which could have easily led to a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. I was a junior at Pinecrest Boarding School in Fort Lauderdale, when it happened. I was terrified and wanted to come home to Coral Gables. Crying hysterically, I stood in line to call my parents. The USA was only 90 miles from Cuba, and I wanted to be home if there was a war. I was told by my father to stay at the school as things would be all right.
The crisis started on October 14, 1962 when U.S. reconnaissance aircraft flying over Cuba took photographs of Soviet intermediate-range, missile launch sites. Kennedy warned Khrushchev that nuclear weapons would not be tolerated, ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba, and mobilized 140,000 troops.
Kennedy pledged that any missile launched from Cuba would be regarded as an act of war by the Soviets and demanded all nuclear weapons be removed. Castro put 400,000 of his people on alert. On October 26, Khrushchev offered to remove its missiles if Kennedy did not invade and the United States removed its missiles from Turkey. They agreed on October 28.
Castro had his own demands. He wanted an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba, an end to anti-Castro attacks in the United States, a cessation to U.S. violations of Cuban airspace, and the return of Guantanamo to Cuba. His demands were ignored. Khrushchev supposedly met the U.S. demand, no invasion occurred, and later U.S. missiles were removed from Turkey.
Russian ships departed with their hatches open, allowing the Americans to see the missiles leaving. I remember that some items were under cover so it was impossible to tell what they were. The blockade ended November 20, 1962. A nuclear war was averted.
Yet, a controversy remains since Kennedy did not insist on boarding and checking the ships thoroughly to see if they were carrying all the nuclear arms when the Soviets departed. There have been rumors for years that not all the tactical nuclear weapons were removed.
All has not been right in Cuba either. The Cuban population has continued to suffer with a low standard of living, false arrests, political murders, the lack of human rights - all under the tyranny of Communism. Hopefully, Raul Castro will soon be gone and the Cubans will be really libre. But at last, Castro is gone, a mistake that has gone on for 58 years.
I am an American, born in New York City, who was raised in Coral Gables, Florida in the 1950's and 1960's.
In 1954, I flew to Havana on Eastern Airlines for the weekend with my parents and older sister. We visited the chicken market where they beheaded the poultry. We stopped at the crafts market where I obtained the hand carved, maroon maracas I still have; visited beautiful Varadero Beach, was snuck by my mother and father into Havana's Tropicana Casino. A security guard promptly told my parents that it was not the place for an eight-year old and that I had to leave.
We stayed at Hotel Nacional de Cuba, which is still regarded as one of Havana’s iconic hotels. Built in 1930, it has been the choice of celebrities. When we stayed there, it was highly regarded for its magnificent lobby, expansive grounds, and excellent service.
WAVES OF IMMIGRANTS
In 1959, Castro defeated Batista. The first to arrive were supporters of the Batista government followed by wealthy Cubans whose property had been confiscated. They were executives of U.S. companies as well as many in professional occupations.
This was the first of four major waves bringing immigrants to South Florida. By living their own interpretation of their Cuban culture, they transformed Dade County into a Latin American community. In all, more than one million arrived with the vast majority staying in South Florida.
The second wave was in the mid 1960's to the early 1970's. This was fed by Cuba’s economic hardships and the loss of political freedoms for its citizens. In 1968, Castro closed down 55,000 small businesses and eliminated almost all private property. It was now the turn of the middle, lower-middle, and skilled laborers to arrive in the States.
This was also the time of Lyndon Johnson’s “Freedom Flights.” These transported Cubans to Miami twice daily, five times per week from 1965 to 1973, bringing an estimated 300,000 refugees. It was regarded as the largest airborne refugee operation in American history.
Between April and November 1980, many fled their homeland in their homemade crafts. Freedom was regarded as more important than safety. Unfortunately, many perished when their small boats sank on their voyages from the island to Florida. Titled the Mariel Boatlift it brought a different type of immigrant with 71% being blue collar. Castro also took the opportunity to release some of the island’s criminals and mentally ill to American shores.
In 1991, the Soviet collapse affected Cuba’s economy causing it to shrink within three years as much as 40%. It resulted in riots in Havana. To reduce the pressure, Fidel Castro declared anyone who wished to leave Cuba could go. Tens of thousands left on anything that could float from truck tires to rafts.
REBIRTH
The first waves started invigorating the Miami area, a large city that had been going downhill. Flagler, Miami's Main Street, became the center of Little Havana where shops and restaurants were opened in masse. Spanish became the dominant language both for people and for signage.
Who can forget Lilla's (now gone,) a wonderful Cuban restaurant with its Palomilla steak and mountains of french fries? How about the parks dominated by the elder men playing dominoes? Cigar manufacturing factories, so prominent in Tampa, sprang up in South Florida.
The Cuban Medianoche sandwich became popular. It was named because it was a popular staple served in Cuban nightclubs around midnight. It’s ingredients are three thin slices of ham, three thin slices of roast pork, three thin slices of Swiss cheese, and three or four slices of pickles. That is all placed between medianoche bread (sweet yellow egg bread.) The sandwich is placed in a press until the cheese is melted and the bread is slightly hard.
Espresso, their strong coffee, was a staple of their lives. It was so strong that people joked that you could not leave a spoon in the coffee for more than two seconds without the spoon starting to dissolve.
A booming number of Cuban students enrolled in our schools. At Coral Gables High, an institution educating tenth through twelfth grade students, enrollment exceeded 3,000 students. Classes started and ended at three different time periods in order to meet this influx. They started at 7:35, 8:35, and 9:35 a.m. and ended at 2:15, 3:15, and 4:15 p.m. respectively. Other schools in Dade County participated in the same type of classroom scheduling.
Cubans wanted to enter the same professions they had enjoyed in Cuba - doctors, lawyers, politicians, and educators. This was not done automatically. They needed to meet licensing qualifications for these jobs. To survive, these professionals became employed in such occupations as carpenters, maids, gas station attendants, and servers in restaurants. They worked hard, pursued their dreams, and accomplished their goals of becoming the professionals they had once been.
Others became business men and women. They had learned entrepreneurial skills in Cuba and with the continuing influx of Cuban residents were successful in creating and building firms.
Today, some of the descendants of these Cubans are well known. Two of them, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, ran for the Republican presidential nominee in 2016. Others hold national office in the United States House of Representatives.
With the initial influx of the Cubans, the Black population of Miami found it increasingly difficult to obtain jobs and were twice as likely to be unemployed. New immigrants from Cuba and Haiti sought many of the positions that the Blacks had once held. Instead of being second class citizens, the Blacks became third class citizens resulting in high multiracial tensions.
IMPORTANT EVENTS
In the beginning, the Cubans believed that they would not be exiled long. They placed their hopes on the Bay of Pigs military invasion, on April 17, 1961. On that date, the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506, of 1,400 Cuban exiles, tried to liberate their country. The CIA had expected that once the men landed, the Cubans would rise to overthrow their government. Instead, the opposite occurred. The vast majority of Cubans rallied behind their government.
Castro took control of the counter attack, and in three days the fighting was over. More than a thousand men were quickly captured and imprisoned. They were later exchanged for some 50 million dollars worth of U.S. baby food, medicine, and food. With the lack of adequate air support, half the forces the CIA deemed necessary, and improper planning by Kennedy, the invasion was doomed from the beginning.
In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred which could have easily led to a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. I was a junior at Pinecrest Boarding School in Fort Lauderdale, when it happened. I was terrified and wanted to come home to Coral Gables. Crying hysterically, I stood in line to call my parents. The USA was only 90 miles from Cuba, and I wanted to be home if there was a war. I was told by my father to stay at the school as things would be all right.
The crisis started on October 14, 1962 when U.S. reconnaissance aircraft flying over Cuba took photographs of Soviet intermediate-range, missile launch sites. Kennedy warned Khrushchev that nuclear weapons would not be tolerated, ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba, and mobilized 140,000 troops.
Kennedy pledged that any missile launched from Cuba would be regarded as an act of war by the Soviets and demanded all nuclear weapons be removed. Castro put 400,000 of his people on alert. On October 26, Khrushchev offered to remove its missiles if Kennedy did not invade and the United States removed its missiles from Turkey. They agreed on October 28.
Castro had his own demands. He wanted an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba, an end to anti-Castro attacks in the United States, a cessation to U.S. violations of Cuban airspace, and the return of Guantanamo to Cuba. His demands were ignored. Khrushchev supposedly met the U.S. demand, no invasion occurred, and later U.S. missiles were removed from Turkey.
Russian ships departed with their hatches open, allowing the Americans to see the missiles leaving. I remember that some items were under cover so it was impossible to tell what they were. The blockade ended November 20, 1962. A nuclear war was averted.
Yet, a controversy remains since Kennedy did not insist on boarding and checking the ships thoroughly to see if they were carrying all the nuclear arms when the Soviets departed. There have been rumors for years that not all the tactical nuclear weapons were removed.
All has not been right in Cuba either. The Cuban population has continued to suffer with a low standard of living, false arrests, political murders, the lack of human rights - all under the tyranny of Communism. Hopefully, Raul Castro will soon be gone and the Cubans will be really libre. But at last, Castro is gone, a mistake that has gone on for 58 years.