cuban story
the cuban story by herbert l. matthews, 1961 | online research library: questia
he also appeared in the documentary he made, cuban story, which was a far more substantial piece, and in hindsight, has become one of the key accounts of castro' s revolution .
signed an option with a canadian company, lucid dreams, to co - write cuba saga, a tv series based on my father, errol flynn, and the powers that were in cuba... and use some of the cuban story footage. cooool subject
robin hood and the cuban revolutionaries is broadcast on radio 4 on saturday at 1030 bst .
the international journal of cuban studies, vol. 9, no. 1, spring 2017
eight cuban - american gainesvillians share their memories, hopes and everlasting connections with their beloved island nation .
cuban landed a job selling software, and eventually formed his own consulting business, microsolutions. cuban was soon an expert in the field of computers and computer networking. he also had a knack for building a smart, profitable company. in 1990, cuban sold the firm to compuserve for $ 6 million .
cuban story taps into the feelings of injustice, unrest, and disillusionment felt by cuba' s population at the time. the student demonstrations - the reaction of the people. it' s about men who acted upon their convictions and conveys the time frame, the context, in which this took place. retroactively, it is fascinating .
but towards the end of his life, flynn was at the epicentre of fidel castro' s cuban revolution .
hello all - my dad' s film cuban story is now on sale on amazon. for those who are unaware of it - my father lived with errol flynn in havana during the last days of batista. together they filmed castro' s rise to power - with errol flynn presenting and narrating the events featuring castro, che, batista and himself. urltoken
looking bloated and ill, he starred alongside beverly in cuban rebel girls, in what turned out to be his final film appearance .
cuban story, a truly revolutionary motion picture is certainly the only film in history to star both errol flynn and fidel castro! back in the 1950s, errol flynn and producer victor pahlen owned a movie theater in havana. they happened to be there when castro' s revolution broke out around them, so they took to the streets with their cameras to document history as it happened, at ground zero. the result was a unique documentary of castro
unfortunately, the cuban story is not clearly written. only two of the seven chapters, the one on castro and the concluding analysis of american journalistic response, are free from redundancy and disorganization. in expressing his contradictory hopes and apprehensions, gratification and disappointment, matthews scrambles criticism, rationalization and suggestions in no particular order. often, following his line of argument is like watching a tennis match. his own self - defense takes on a willy lomanesque incoherence .
i know that i will never feel completely at home in either country because they are both a part of me. that' s the life of an immigrant, living on the spectrum of the hyphen, because i am now not just a cuban or an american, but a cuban - american .
in 2000, mark cuban introduced himself to the nba community when he purchased the dallas mavericks for $ 285 million from ross perot jr. for cuban, a longtime season ticket holder, the chance to be a part of the professional sports world was a dream. the mavericks, however, were far from a dream franchise .
' s uprising, hosted by flynn, featuring unrivaled footage of the conflict and castro himself. circumstances outside their control shelved the film for nearly fifty years ;
cuban story
has never been screened, never seen, never released - - until now. all day entertainment is proud to have worked with the pahlen family to restore this landmark documentary from the only surviving negative materials, stored in england for nearly a half century. includes an introduction by producer victor pahlen' s daughter, kyra pahlen .
after his freshman year at pitt, cuban transferred to indiana university. his understanding of supply and demand extended outside of the classroom. needing to make money to continue his education (he was paying his own tuition) cuban started giving dance lessons. that endeavor soon led him to hosting lavish disco parties at the bloomington national guard armory .
it was an accident that my interview with fidel castro in the sierra maestra on february 17, 1957, should have proved so important. there was a story to be got, a censorship to be broken. i got it and i did it - and it so happens that neither cuba nor the united states is going to be the same again .
with matthews, however, journalistic participation preceded commitment. as the new york times correspondent whose interview with fidel in february, 1957, established the fact that the guerilla leader was still alive, and as the editorial writer who martialed the forces in opposition to batista, matthews indeed turned out to be the equivalent of an army division to castro. since the revolution has not developed in matthews' image; it would be simple to say that the cuban story has been written from a posture of disillusion; but it would also be inaccurate .
after graduating in 1981, cuban moved back to pittsburgh and took a job with mellon bank, just as the company was ready to switch over to computers. cuban immersed himself in the study of machines and networking. however, he had no real desire to hang out in his home city for too long, and in 1982 he left pittsburgh for dallas .
entrepreneur and professional sports team owner mark cuban was born on july 31, 1958, in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. cuban had a typically middle - class childhood. his father, norton, spent nearly half a century working at a car upholstery shop. his grandfather, morris chobanisky, emigrated from russia and fed his family by selling merchandise out of the back of a truck .
cubans are patient only because they have no choice. i’ve watched my parents go from working as a town director and school system supervisor in our homeland to working in housecleaning at a miami hotel. i’ve been through dental school twice. i’ve learned english as an adult. i’ve been ostracized by my cuban community for being chosen in the cuban lottery for a u. s. visa .
cuban faced additional problems around that time, as a sports illustrated report of sexual harassment and other forms of misconduct within the mavericks & apos; front office had prompted the team to open an internal investigation. in march, an nba spokesperson said the league was reviewing an alleged incident of sexual assault involving cuban from 2011, which ended with prosecutors declining to press charges at the time .
cuban exile and author carlos eire said :
at that point when flynn was there, castro' s policies were purely democratic. his goal was to remove batista and stabilise the nation politically .
born in pittsburgh in 1958, entrepreneur mark cuban has ventured into many diverse businesses. he made his fortune through the sale of startups microsolutions and urltoken in the 1990s, and later became known as the zealous owner of the nba & apos; s dallas mavericks. cuban has also invested in film production, and has appeared on such tv series as dancing with the stars and shark tank .
despite the hardship of merely trying to survive, the cuban people managed to laugh, hug, kiss and dance. they welcomed me back with open arms during a time when it was unheard of and even shameful for cuban - americans to come home. amid this widespread poverty and ostracism, i was enamored with my country — its heritage, diversity, beauty, culture and its undying energy .
co - founder of the successful startup broadcast. com, mark cuban is known as the zealous owner of the nba' s dallas mavericks and a star of the tv show' shark tank.'
cuban again courted controversy in may 2014, when he made some comments that were widely perceived as racist. on the subject of bigotry, he stated ,
if i see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street, i & apos; ll move to the other side of the street .
cuban then explained that he tried
to always catch my prejudices .
cuban later expressed remorse for his comments, posting ,
i didn & apos; t consider the trayvon martin family, and i apologize to them for that .
he also tweeted that
i have my failings... but a racist i am not .
cuban married his longtime girlfriend tiffany stewart in 2002. they have three children together, daughters alexis (born 2003) and alyssa (2006), and son jake (2010). the family resides in the dallas area .
in 2004, cuban caught the attention of the security and exchange commission (sec), which charged him with insider trading in regards to an internet search engine website. cuban claimed he was innocent, and in july 2009 the case was dismissed. however, the case was reinstated the following year. it was also during this time that cuban joined the series shark tank as a venture capitalist, allowing for the trial to be put on hold. in march 2013, judge sidney a. fitzwater let the case go to trial once again. the trial began on october 1, 2013. later that month, he was officially cleared of all charges of insider trading by a texas jury .
well before president obama relaxed the travel restrictions, i quietly traveled back and forth to my country more than 80 times — sometimes for business, as one of gainesville’s cultural programs coordinators, and sometimes for pleasure. the architecture, music, dance, art and literature of the cuban people stand in a class all their own. i’ve been honored and fortunate to have worked so closely with some of the most renowned cuban artists in the world, in both my work life and in my personal life .
cuban showed himself to be the club & apos; s biggest booster. choosing to sit with the fans, cuban egged on opponents and derided refs, and the mavericks responded positively to the new owner & apos; s zeal. the team qualified for the playoffs in 2001, set a franchise record for wins (57) the following year and made it to the 2006 nba finals before losing to the miami heat. in 2011, the mavericks finally won the nba title by defeating the heat .
cuban & apos; s go - getter attitude extended to the classroom as well. he started taking psychology classes at the university of pittsburgh during his junior year of high school. he then skipped his senior year and enrolled full time at the college .
la bodeguita del medio is a crowded bar in old havana, once a bohemian haunt, now a tourist trap with a three - piece band playing cuban standards in the corner. it still serves good rum cocktails, though. indeed, its walls are covered with graffiti
the story of cuba; batista' s regime, the rise and taking of power by castro and the administration of power by castro unfurls on film, including never seen before shots of castro and his men, the events at santa clara, his guerrilla trainer from mexico, fidel' s entrance into havana, che guevara and the revolutionaries, batista' s executions, fidel' s first speech at the camp of columbia, the people' s excavations of the student bodies killed by batista' s men, the post revolutionary trials, and the executions that followed ...
cuban also brought his business acumen to the world of film and television production by purchasing the landmark theatres chain and magnolia pictures in 2003. he & apos; s listed as an executive producer for such acclaimed movies as goodnight and good luck (2005) and akeelah and the bee (2006), and further augmented his own celebrity with appearances in the popular tv series entourage and the league. in 2015, cuban also showed up in the big - screen version of entourage, and starred as u. s. president marcus robbins in the disaster flick sharknado 3 .
my family has had a strong connection to ernest hemingway’s life in cuba for decades, and i followed that relationship, authoring a book based on my father’s friendship with the famous american author :
hemingway’s cuban son .
in addition, i’ve helped in the creation of three hemingway documentaries .
cuban also brought a touch of innovation to his ownership of the team. he was the first owner to launch his own blog, a swirling mix of his own tech insights and thoughts on nba basketball. the blog became wildly popular, receiving thousands of emails a day from his readers .
the cuban influx to miami enriched the area, bringing diversity and economic growth in the 1970s. my family helped many others as they acclimated to the states, but i was never to return to cuba again, until just two years ago. it had been 59 years since i’d last been .
his fortune making, however, was far from done. sensing that a new world awaited with the development of the internet, cuban and a business partner, indiana alum todd wagner, started audionet in 1995. its formation was rooted in a desire to be able to listen to indiana hoosier basketball games online. the company, despite its early critics, proved to be a smash success. renamed broadcast. com, the firm went public in 1998 and soon saw its stock reach $ 200 a share. a year later, wagner and cuban sold out to yahoo! for nearly $ 6 billion .
in february 2018, with the mavericks owning one of the worst records in the nba, cuban admitted that he told his team that
losing is our best option
to obtain a top pick in the nba draft, a comment that drew a whopping $ 600, 000 fine from the league .
plagued by poor personnel decisions and mediocre players and coaches, the club experienced more than a decade of non - playoff basketball games. cuban used his new role as owner to immediately change that. with his trademark enthusiasm and doggedness, he revamped the culture of the team and its roster, erecting a new stadium and pampering his players .
every major revolution polarizes observers into partisans, but it seems a singular power of the cuban revolution to excite in its onlookers a deep sense of participation. as the body of literature devoted to castro' s victory grows, more and more books appear implicitly devoted to the impact of the revolutionary struggle on the author' s thought processes and outlook .
like his grandfather, cuban displayed a tenacity for making a deal and carving out a better life for himself. at the age of 12, he sold sets of garbage bags to save up for a pair of shoes he liked. in high school, he earned extra dollars any way he could, mainly by becoming a stamp and coin salesman .
while cuban has every reason to go into retirement mode, he & apos; s done anything but that. he made a big foray into the high - definition tv market with hdnet (later axs tv); launched his own reality tv series; and on the advice of his young daughter, was a contestant on dancing with the stars in 2007 .
cuban remained on top of technology trends by launching a social media app called cyber dust in 2014. true to form, he also thrust himself into the national conversation when inspired, boasting he could beat both hillary clinton and donald trump as campaigning for the u. s. presidency heated up in 2015. in july 2016, the billionaire threw his support behind hillary clinton .
the state department' s refusal to believe in the plasticity of the cuban revolution, is matthew' s major regret. in his chapter on fidel castro, he complains :
each year since 1957 there has been a different fidel castro to deal with, yet each year - - each day, in fact - - he is treated as if the ideas he holds then and the policies he is following will not or cannot change .
my own work, however, is the impetus for my second book :
an island of oceans and skies: memoir of a cuban son. ” it’s based on my childhood in cuba, which is never far from my mind, as my family instilled within me the importance of keeping strong ties with our family left in cuba. i’ve visited my home country several times over the decades, and the new relations between our two countries is a welcome change .
online and off, cuban is an unfiltered force of opinion, a bombastic personality among the rather stodgy inner circle of nba ownership. he made waves when he referred to kobe bryant & apos; s sexual assault case of 2003 as
great for the nba. it & apos; s reality television, people love train - wreck television, and you hate to admit it, but that is the truth, that & apos; s the reality today .
as new daily commercial air flights reconnect the u. s. with its so - close - yet - so - distant neighbor, change will be swift as thousands visit cuba for the first time. in the months and years to come, the opening of travel between the u. s. and cuba will alter perceptions forever. but for these nine cuban - americans who call gainesville home — representing thousands more like themselves — their deeply held memories of long - ago cuba are woven into the fabric of their lives. here are their stories :
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newspaper articles written by film star errol flynn documenting his last years spent in cuba with fidel castro' s rebels have been unearthed in a university library .
mention the name of errol flynn, and an image of a larger - than - life, swashbuckling screen hero comes to mind. or the sly grin of a sexual athlete who sparked the saying :
in like flynn .
it was a surprise to discover the famous actor moonlighted as a newspaper correspondent who wrote a number of articles about his adventures .
his features
me and castro
and
i fought with castro
for the new - york journal american remained unread for 50 years, buried in the archives of the university of texas at austin' s center for american history .
i have always been a fan of flynn' s films and believe he was a far better actor than he gave himself credit for .
errol flynn was cinema' s biggest star from the mid - 30s until the late 1940s, thanks to his debut in captain blood and a series of swashbuckling epics such as the sea hawk, the dawn patrol and the adventures of robin hood .
but even i was unprepared to find the man who was a screen idol as robin hood to a generation of movie - goers in the company of revolutionary pin - ups fidel castro and che guevara. but, ever the hero, he admired those who fought on others' behalf .
i was surprised to find there was a serious side to flynn - he sympathised with the republicans during the spanish civil war, and set off for spain
to follow in hemingway' s footsteps
in february 1937 .
while in madrid, flynn condemned the fascist general franco. he was shelled, survived an aerial attack and narrowly avoided being machine - gunned by an over - enthusiastic republican .
errol' s daughter rory flynn said the public image of her father did not accurately reflect the man who wrote two novels, an autobiography and newspaper reports .
she said :
it is said that he was a swashbuckling hedonist, but my father was a serious man .
he thought about things, he wrote books, he wrote poems and he wrote documentaries, this is not just something that came about .
he wrote for the hearst (news) papers. i think underneath it all, he was a journalist .
flynn had been a regular visitor to batista' s cuba, where the dictator welcomed distinguished tourists, drawn to the island for its brothels and legalised gambling .
by the time he returned to the country in late 1958 with his teenage girlfriend beverly aadland, a lifetime of hard - living had taken its toll, and roles were hard to find - although ironically, during the dog days of his career, flynn gave two of his best - received performances - the sun also rises and the roots of heaven .
i feel that the citizens will know who you are... and it will cheer them to know that someone from the united states, whom they perhaps have seen on the screen, is interested enough to come and see them
flynn claimed castro invited him to cuba at the very dawn of the revolution .
beverly aadland said :
errol had talked to hearst newspapers in new york about interviewing castro, and through some contacts in the' havana hilton', went up into the sierra mistra mountains to talk to fidel .
beverly was installed at the capital' s prestigious commodore hotel, while flynn went off to the mountains with the rebels, spending five days with castro and interviewing him .
in his articles, he described how fidel castro told him that
no american knew him or his brother raul better than i did
and how he gave cuba' s leader lessons in public speaking .
castro is quoted as saying to flynn :
i feel that the citizens will know who you are... and it will cheer them to know that someone from the united states, whom they perhaps have seen on the screen, is interested enough to come and see them .
flynn also reportedly had a brief encounter with che guevara, who did not recognise the bloated and faded film star when they met .
in other articles he described gun battles and how he was shot in the leg. he also witnessed castro' s swearing - in as president in february 1959 .
but flynn was criticised for spending time with the rebels, and had to defend his allegiances .
he wrote :
ever since boyhood i have been drawn, perhaps romantically - to the ideas of causes, crusades .
beverly said she felt he did not realise castro would go on to be a communist .
i think he was a hero - worshipper, and i think errol thought that castro was a good guy trying to free the country for everyday citizens. i guess castro fooled him too ,
she said .
fidel castro and his men knew how to work the publicity machine, and there was freedom of the press .
this is one sign of how inefficient batista' s repression was, basically if any foreign journalist or big star like errol flynn wanted to go and end up in the mountains, they' d end up there .
flynn was impressed with the vigour of the revolution, and was behind two films made in cuba at the time .
but the film was panned as
a truly pathetic swansong to a mighty career
by critics .
in the last months of his life, flynn was beset by financial woes and ill health, his third wife patrice wymore wanted to divorce him and he was being sued .
he died in vancouver, aged 50, on 14 october, 1959, where he and beverly had travelled to sell his beloved yacht zaca to try and pay off some of his debts .
errol flynn' s life was one of contrasts - a star who wanted to be an actor; a legendary hedonist who wanted to be taken seriously as a writer and a man who deliberately placed himself in the heart of two revolutions .
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by herbert l. matthews. published by george braziller, new york, 1961. $ 18 pp. $ 4. 50 .
such is the nature of herbert matthews' new book, and so it was with the works of jean - paul sartre, c. wright mills, jules dubois and warren miller. it follows that none of the writing on cuba thus far can be classified as objective history; what has been produced is a literary extension of the issues and conflicts raised by the revolution. sartre and mills, to whom the revolution was like an overdose of hormones, totally altered their styles in trying to influence popular attitudes. mills even admitted to a quasi - military intent when he said that mobilization of public opinion against an invasion was a goal of listen yankee .
when hostility to castro mounted in this country, matthews came in for a disproportionate share of the retrospective blame. the national review carried what he himself admits is a clever cartoon, showing a happy castro saying
i got my job through the new york times .
the attack on matthews was far from humorous, however. the eastland - dodd committee questioned his failure to warn of the communist potential in castro' s movement. the author' s primary concern, therefore, is self - defense, and he argues passionately, if not eloquently, that truth in a revolutionary situation is not absolute but relative to the shifting logic of the revolution .
those who harped on the communist line later said:' i told you so ,
matthews says of his critics - -
they helped to make their guess come true .
after an event happens, it takes on an inevitability and one feels that - it had to happen... . those who live close to the events, who are a part of them, who know that the forces and pressures involved at any given time in any particular circumstance are enormously complex... know there is no inevitability .
castro' s political - psychological make - up is one of the subjects that matthews handles with a good deal of insight. there is notion in the united states that communism is so analogous to disease that it spreads by the same mechanism. thus throughout 1959 and 1960 it was suggested in the daily press and the newsweeklies that castro could easily become a communist by proximity to che guevara (who was identified as a congenital communist). it was never hinted at this time that forced economic and political reliance on the soviet bloc could have the same effect .
some of the blame must rest with whoever edited the book for braziller. for example, criticism of the american ambassadors, arthur gardner, earl e. t. smith, and phillip bonsal is interspersed throughout the volume, and had it been collected and discussed within one chapter, a far clearer statement of what ambassadorial responsibilities entail would have resulted .
stylistically, sartre and mills may have altered their approaches too much, but matthews has adjusted his too little. the four - paragraph clusters of the editorial writer sever many logical threads; and time and again there is a relapse into philosophical speculation and repetitive generalizations about the responsibility of the reporter .
matthews concludes by defending his integrity with such genuine and profuse emotion that his sincerity becomes almost embarrassing. it is not the sincerity of a man recanting; the author' s admiration for castro and sense of loyalty to the revolution' s expressed ideals are real, while his disappointment is parenthetical. it is the insistence of a journalist who sees hope in any disruption of an impoverished, deprived society .
with both the iconic and the new, these eight local boston and cambridge - area establishments have come to define the harvard experience for students both old and new .
venture university aims to curate and develop emerging investors and entrepreneurs entering the industry .
the undergraduate awards programme 2018, the world’s leading undergraduate academic awards programme, recognises outstanding undergraduate work and shares it with a global audience .
zambrero opens in harvard square and warwick, rhode island, donating a meal to someone in need for every burrito or bowl sold .
journalists rarely make history. this is not our function. we are the chroniclers of our times; at best we provide material for history .
i am not accepting, for myself or for the new york times, either blame or credit for having started fidel castro on his meteoric rise to fame and power. he was a man of destiny who would somehow have made his mark, sooner or later. cuba was ripe for revolution .
the united states had a reckoning to pay for past policies. what adlai stevenson had called
the revolution of rising expectations
was exerting dangerous pressures ...
the catholic historical review, vol. 89, no. 3, july 2003
peer - reviewed publications on questia are publications containing articles which were subject to evaluation for accuracy and substance by professional peers of the article' s author (s) .
the nation, vol. 266, no. 3, january 26, 1998
fidels new poster boy; fidel castro: controller of cuba since 1959. brother raul now runs a country with huge problems
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i was 9 years old when my family and i boarded a pan am flight from cuba to the united states with two small suitcases and no money in our pockets. i knew nothing other than we were going to go to miami beach for a little while .
that was in 1960, and i wouldn’t return to my country for 32 years .
in february 1992, i was living north of montreal, now a wizened 41. it seemed as if all of canada traveled to cuba during winter, and i went with the flow, with no idea what was in store for me .
they called it the “special period. ” in the years following russia’s pullout from the country, cuba was devastated. its people, branded communists, left demoralized, anxious and very, very hungry. the form of communism i witnessed when i went back to my birthplace alone, ill - equipped and terrified seemed more like a totalitarian dictatorship .
i am proud today to be able to share my thoughts, theories and experiences with the world for the greater good of cuba and its people .
i was born in the city of matanzas, a city on the northern coast, 60 miles east of havana. called
the athens of cuba
, matanzas overlooks a wide bay into which three rivers drain. it had great neoclassic architecture and was the hub of literary, artistic and musical talent in cuba (birthplace of two famous dances ,
the rumba
and the national dance of cuba ,
the danzon
) and to many gifted writers, composers, poets, and to the creator of the mambo .
nestled in the rich - soiled yumuri valley, matanzas is rich in sugar and coffee, which is why it was mostly populated by farmers from the canary islands and former plantation slaves. it is also the home of the world - famous varadero beach .
my family was not politically involved, but we cherished democracy. we left cuba with my maternal grandparents in 1963. my grandfather had uncontrolled diabetes and we were allowed to leave cuba through mexico. when we left, we had to leave all our belongings. i had to leave my lifelong favorite pet, my dog, yuti, behind, which was painful for a 13 year old .
we were fortunate to start a new life in new jersey where my uncles lived. i finished high school there, went onto college at cornell university, and then to medical school at nyu in new york city. i came to uf to do my residency and training in pulmonary medicine and was offered a faculty position at uf college of medicine .
the situation in cuba has been difficult and extremely complicated. i miss my homeland. many people there have suffered through no fault of their own. the intended result of an extended embargo did not resolve the political issues there for either side. it is my belief that
one - on - one
communication with people does more for diplomacy and human rights than stern policies and dogma from political entities on either side. i have been to cuba twice in the past six years, and have relatives there so i plan to go back. i am hopeful that greater personal interchange between the two countries will allow for ease of personal liberties and further the importance of democracy and freedom as we are so fortunate to enjoy in our united states of america .
we knew things were bad, but i have memories full of love and happiness .
i left cuba when i was 28 years old, with my then - husband and eight other people. huddled together on a homemade boat made of two truck tire tubes and a crib’s safety handle, we headed to the united states in august 1994. the three - day journey was harrowing, life - threatening, even, and i suffered from hallucinations, dehydration, and lack of food. our little float withstood waves of more than 15 feet until we were finally rescued by the u. s. coast guard .
they brought us to guantanamo bay, where i stayed as a refugee for eight months waiting to hear my fate. they let me in. in may 1995, i arrived in the united states, and i got to gainesville a month later .
growing up in cuba from the mid -' 60s until i left was hard, but i look back on the hardships as i saw them in my childhood. we knew things were bad, but i have memories full of love and happiness. my parents worked to the bone to provide for us best they could, and to help with the burden, i dropped out of nursing school to contribute to the family. i thought coming to the united states would allow me to more greatly help my family, so i made the treacherous journey in the hopes of a better life, both here and there .
for a decade after i arrived, i worked any job i could until i was finally able to open estevez travel out of my home in 2003. for seven years i provided travel and legal services related to cuba, and in 2010 i opened an office in gainesville and have since been working with several universities, colleges and organizations to make organized trips to cuba .
my job now allows me to promote the relationship between my two beloved countries, while helping and visiting my family in cuba at the same time .
my family has had a strong connection to ernest hemingway’s life in cuba for decades .
i lived in cuba for the first eight years of my life, until my family emigrated to spain in 1972. we weren’t there long, coming to the united states just two years later and settling in new jersey for the rest of my childhood .
here in gainesville, i’m acting coordinator for cultural programs at santa fe college, but i am more truly a visual artist and, over the past 30 years, i have exhibited my art in 20 one - person exhibits and in over 400 group exhibits in the united states, canada, cuba, costa rica, france, germany, italy, spain and china .
we went back... every summer, until the threat of nuclear war became too much .
i left cuba before castro took power. it was 1955, and i was 4 years old. in the beginning, we went back to havana every summer, until the threat of nuclear war became too much in 1960. the embargo against cuba began and flights were stopped. we didn’t know if we would ever see our relatives again, and we moved from new york city to miami to be closer to them, just in case .
though we stayed close to our family in cuba and maintained our traditions and faith, we were always fearful for their safety. those of us in america could not imagine the strife they were enduring — our own aunts, cousins, parents and grandparents .
growing up, our close knit family maintained our cultural traditions and our faith. we were very much connected to those in cuba, yet always anxious for the safety and well - being of our family .
visiting my 94 - year - old aunt and a cousin, still living in my grandmother’s old house, saddened me. the condition of the house was a testament to the struggle there and their will to survive .
my hope, moving forward, is that we directly help the people in cuba in terms of economic and educational opportunities. cubans do not want a welfare state; we are a proud and industrious people and want opportunities to have a life of success and respect for human rights. let us hope we can achieve these goals with wise and judicious choices .
we left the country... just as my father was about to be arrested
before my parents came to the united states seeking refuge, their parents had traveled to cuba from spain seeking refuge in the late 1880s. i was born in 1954 in havana, to a school principal and an engineer. my parents had done it. they had made a better life for us, on the sacrifices their parents made for them. then, we had to do it all again .
everything changed when fidel castro took over. people were being arrested and imprisoned for handing out leaflets; they were shot for not much more. we left the country through friends in the united states, just as my father was about to be arrested. arriving in 1960, we were granted political amnesty .
despite the trouble there, my parents yearned to go back. they wanted the life they left behind before castro. they mourned the losses they had suffered. while most of my father’s family eventually made it to the states, my mother never saw hers again. we made a life here; my siblings were born u. s. citizens. we love this country, but there is a hole, an empty place my soul longs for .
the embargo provided a powerful excuse for the castros to avoid responsibility for the dismal failure of their so - called revolution. they have amassed wealth while their people suffered more and more. they are dictators, not romantic revolutionaries .
i resent the depiction of cuba in the media. there is a romantic fantasy about what the country is .
people’s ration cards list bones as protein. people' s homes are crumbling around them. the much - touted health care system includes hospitals with no medicines, clean sheets or working toilets .
while my heart longs for my homeland, i will not make the trip until there is far more change, and we are clear - eyed about what the reality is for those who live there. they should not have to wait for people in the u. s. to see the faded, crumbling cities and
vintage
cars to regain their hard - fought lives .
i worked in the treasury department. my wife was a supervisor of the school system throughout havana. on the side, i was a successful real estate salesman. i never realized how that hobby would change my entire life, would help me land safely, eventually, on the other side .
the people at the bank took all my money, everything i had. my account had been frozen along with countless others, and an old friend arranged for me to meet one bank in an old, broken - down building to get my safety deposit box. they opened it. they kept it. two thousand american dollars, lost. i left for the united states with $ 37 in my pocket. i told the government i was arranging to bring a light bulb company back to havana. i still can’t believe they allowed me my visa for that. it was 1961 .
my wife and two sons followed, on the even flimsier excuse of coming to celebrate my 37th birthday with me. they never returned .
within months, the house we bought in miami went underwater in a bad housing market. we were thrown out. everything we had just gained was lost .
gainesville was a thread of hope for us. channel 5 hired my wife, rosa, to teach spanish for tv. i joined her as soon as i could, but job prospects were low. i worked cleaning toilets, then fixing air conditioners for years until i could finally take the citizenship test in 1967. i got my real estate license, and have now owned gore - rabell for years .
i’ve been back to cuba three times, including after my wife’s death in 2006. each time, i saw the devastation that had overtaken my homeland and lonely remnants of what was once there .
i will go again, but i am 94 years old now. after 55 years, gainesville is my home. my wife is buried here, and here i will stay until the lord calls me home .
i’ve seen cuba go from financially strapped and rationed under russian support, to devastated and forlorn after the collapse of communist russia. and now i’m seeing the borders finally opening up. i am 36 years old .
growing up, we didn’t know we didn’t have much. when russia collapsed, we went from our meager rations to literally nothing. i had no shoes, hardly any clothes, no toys or food or medicine .
after graduating high school, i had to serve in the army where a rifle backfired into my face, nearly blinding me. despite the hardships, after my service, i managed to attend the university of havana dental school, where i was in my fourth year when my family won the visa lotto. we faced discrimination for accepting a way out of cuba — my mother was demoted and certain friends, relatives and professionals started treating us poorly .
when we left, we packed next to nothing, leaving everything we could with our extended family staying behind. they needed it more .
i learned english and went back to school, starting all over. i found a man i love, and i’m now a father to twin boys. my life is finally here .
traveling through cuba as an adult, the luscious mountains serve as a backdrop for the vast sugarcane fields, coffee plantations and royal palms. it’s idyllic, until the armed soldiers interrogate the driver of our 1940s family cadillac at the checkpoints .
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“before you guys were writing about me in the sports page, people were calling me crazy in the computer industry. people were calling me crazy in the systems integration industry. people said i was lucky... the more people think i' m crazy and out of my mind, typically, the better i do. ”
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cuban story : the truth about fidel castro revolution is a 1959 film documentary narrated by errol flynn , and the last known performance work of his career . it was one of two films flynn made about the cuban revolution during the early period when castro was publicly denying his communist allegiance , the other being the drama-documentary cuban rebel girls ( 1959 ) . 
cuban story: the truth about fidel castro revolution is a 1959 film documentary narrated by errol flynn, and the last known performance work of his career. it was one of two films flynn made about the cuban revolution during the early period when castro was publicly denying his communist allegiance, the other being the drama-documentary cuban rebel girls (1959).
cuban story: the truth about fidel castro revolution is a 1959 film documentary narrated by errol flynn, and the last known performance work of his career. it was one of two films flynn made about the cuban revolution during the early period when castro was publicly denying his communist allegiance, the other being the drama-documentary cuban rebel girls (1959).