Marta here. I started this series, Cuando Sali de Cuba, Stories of Courage and Hope on my own blog, My big, fat, Cuban family in order to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month: Cuban-Style. I asked my readers to send me their stories about how their families left Cuba and how they ended up here in the U.S.

As the stories began pouring in, I realized that this needed to be an ongoing series. The stories are still coming in. Some are written as tributes by descendants of Cuban refugees who were born here in the U.S. and some, like this one, written from the perspective of someone who lived and survived the first years of the revolution and helped others escape.

I asked my friend, Joey Lay, of the Dos Cubanos Pig Roasts to send me his story. He did one better. He sent me his father's.

I'm honored to offer you Luis Felipe's story. It is absolutely fascinating because of the position he held in the national bank system at the time of the revolution. It will in turn make you angry and break your heart.

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CUANDO SALI DE CUBA – 14 de Octubre 1960

WHEN I FLED CUBA - October 14^th. 1960

Every Cuban that left their homeland in the aftermath of the communist takeover treason from the beginning of the 60’s decade through this date, half a century after, has a story to be told and a vivid and stressful one.

This is my story. I hope you share the sense of hope when I survived and the sense of mourning when somebody else you never knew did not make it.

The world needs to know.

It is our great responsibility to speak on their behalf, as so many innocent people were swallowed by the horrors of cruel and despotic criminals that had no control of their appetite for power and civil compulsion. They have demonstrated this over five long decades and three generations immersed in tremendous devastation as they struggle for life and freedom, the two most precious gifts from God.

It was October 14^th, 1960, at dawn, fifty years ago now, the telephone at my parents home rang very loud and clear at that early hour. It was still dark and it felt like the surroundings were matching the situation that all were experiencing in Cuba at the time.  My cousin was calling to advise me to leave right away.

I was already planning ahead of what was coming to protect my wife and 2 ½  year old baby daughter because it had been announced that the banking system was being taken over by the Communist Government. I was affiliated with the Bank that was in charge of  the Dollar Currency, known as divisas, donated by the people for a supposedly more democratic government that was to be put into place during the first year of the Revolution.

This, of course, never took place because Castro and his comrades deceived the people of Cuba making them believe that they were going to establish a just and democratic country with rights for all their citizens where peace and prosperity were going to flourish. History shows they had no intention of doing this. Instead they brought violence, terror, and misery. Desolation has prevailed for over half a century without the most needed rectification of direction to improve the conditions and liberty of  the people of Cuba.

The fact that I represented the bank employees as a delegate of the national banking syndicate, jeopardized my security and the control of my actions and movements because I refused to follow the orders and instructions of the newly formed revolutionary government.

This "new" government was increasingly influenced by the communist party and the atheist platform. Their plan was to attack the church and religious entities and take over the press and all communications media as well as the different sectors of the business world.

The situation in the country escalated at an alarming rate. The oppression was at full force and the threats were constant. They menaced by means of telephone calls and the sudden presence of armed people that looked more like gangsters than soldiers.

This was the contribution of the errantly named Cuban revolution. A revolution that did not exist because it was stolen from the people and given to the elite of international communism.  The Red Menace took over our island with absolute cruelty and disregard for the human condition and absolutely no sensitivity to their citizens. Private property was rapidly stolen and given to cement the absolute control of the state, and the state was Castro.

El Che Guevara and all the other abusers of power aligned with world elements of the Communist International Group, funded and supported by the Soviet Union and their enslaved satellites. Since I was considered a leader with a Christian philosophy and democratic principles and surrounded by people like me, I was a target for pressure and threats and next in line to either be sent to prison arbitrarily or shot to death like many others were on a daily basis at La Cabaña and other military fortresses.

The new regime had thousands arrested  and also sent to the death squadrons each morning at dawn, without due process of justice or a day in court  since the purpose was to eliminate people that loved freedom and because the justice system was eradicated when these hordes took the country by surprise. They took advantage of a corrupted and weak military dictatorship that was governing by force, too, and had displaced the constitutional government of an elected president and congress eight years before.

I had to leave Cuba that morning of October 14^th, 1960 if I wanted to survive with my family in a country of freedom where I could be of help to my countrymen and to restore our civil life and patriotic values, as well as the religious profession of the people that were not respected by the usurpers. My choice was obvious but the mission almost impossible because of the scrutiny on me.

It was difficult to get out of the country and the permits were unattainable, but I had a plan, and, I put it into effect, carefully and with elaborate disguising.

It worked only because we had God’s protection to such a risky departure. All elements were against me. The banks were invaded by the government militarily with machine guns and all; just like an assault.

And the leader of the syndicate had already left to fight the revolutionary army from the Mountains of Escambray, in Central Cuba, just five days before.

I was the second in command and everybody was looking for me because I did not show up at the bank that day. They went to my house to get me, but I had already vanished. They went to my parents' house searching for me, but I had already left with my father, my wife and baby daughter. We were on our way to the International Airport where there was a big event that particular day.

At first it seemed it would be much more dangerous to be heading to the airport with a military presence there, but instead it turned out to for my benefit. The confusion was what helped me escape.

I arrived at the airport while the armed groups were looking for me. I was the only bank associate that did not show up while the takeover, or so-called nationalization, of the commercial and private banks, in addition to all the retirement funds was happening.

There was a big confusion generated by the coming of the Minister of  Exterior Relations accompanied by the President of Ghana (pseudo-communist) from the United Nations. It happened to coincide with the time of my departure and called for a concentration of all the militias from different fields and sectors of the country, including the bank militias that were at the airport.

All of this perfectly coincided with the time I was there trying to board the airplane. The militia from the banking sector belonging to different institutions thought that I was there for the celebration and had no idea I was really there to escape from my persecutors.

After being stripped and thoroughly checked, we had to walk quite a long way on the tarmac in order to step up the ladder to climb into the aircraft. We were on hold for nearly 45 minutes while we could see the Foreign Minister's aircraft with the President of Ghana (the African country).

Twice the armed soldiers boarded our plane and two men were removed, one at a time.  Our little baby girl was crying, trying to drink a bottle of milk in that terrible heat and the loud noise from the propellers.

Finally, the airplane took off.

Up into the air we went and the blue sky could be seen all around us coming from heaven into the horizon.

Everyone on the airplane, from the passengers to the crew were happily clapping and relieved that we had succeeded in our dangerous plan to escape communism and oppression after so much turmoil. The happiness reflected in the passengers faces was undeniable. There was singing and laughing, smiles and hugs. We all felt united in our euphoria and relief.

When I arrived with my wife and tiny daughter at the old Miami Airport, the Pan American Terminal on 36^th Street was full of people waiting for one of the first groups coming from the chaotic island of Cuba. Once the Pearl of the Antilles and now immersed in tears, hate, guns and distress.

Of course, with empty pockets but a clean heart, we gave thanks to God for his enduring protection that saved our lives.

I called my family that could not come with me to let them know we had arrived safely.  I told my Father and my Mother that I was safe and that I would start helping others to escape the horrors of communism. Our Lord helped me not only to be a bridge between the Cubans and Americans in this country but also allowed me to be an instrument to help bring to freedom hundreds of families and nearly 5,000 people who were being persecuted in Cuba because of their religious beliefs or democratic ideals. Except my grandmother, who knew that she would never see me or the rest of the family again. She was in her 90's when she died a few years later.

I'm sad to say, however, that 51 years after the day I left Cuba for the last time, the conditions there are much, much worse. We lost our homeland. And now three more generations of young people have been deprived of the right to live according to God’s plan for humanity.

The same oppressors that killed our friends and citizens just because they did not follow their ignominies continue to rule the country with a cruel and miserable tyranny. We knew many who served more than 20 years in jail, many of them dying in prison. The devastation has been horrendous in all spheres of society. Such a thing as this had not even been seen before colonial times.

My wife, Miriam and I were married in Miami at Gesu Catholic Church the same day that the revolutionary forces entered in La Habana, January 3^rd, 1959.

Our oldest daughter, Myriam Cristina was born in Cuba, and five more children were born to us here in the U.S.A., Luis Felipe Jr., Dennis Albert, Joseph Edward, Rose Marie and  Robert Anthony.

They are all married and we now have 12 Grandchildren. We live in peace and prosperity in the freedom offered to us here in the U.S.A.

~Luis Felipe Lay

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I'm so very grateful to Joey and his father for sharing this amazing story. Gracias, my friend. I'm proud to know you.

If you're Cuban American, your family has a story to tell. Please allow me the privilege of sharing it. Even if you were born here in the U.S. and you want to pay tribute to those who bravely left Cuba for a better life here, please do. Send me an email with "Cuando Sali de Cuba" in the subject line. Also, please send some family photos. My email is mdarby(at)cox(dot)net.

It's my honor to pay tribute to your courageous families. As Luis Felipe so eloquently put it:

The world needs to know.

(cross-posted at My big, fat, Cuban family)

If you're in southern California this weekend, join us for the LA screening of the award winning documentary, Voices From Mariel.

A recent film festival favorite, the powerful documentary Voices from Mariel tells the previously unheard stories of ten Cuban-American families -- just some of the more than 100,000 Cuban-born immigrants who came to the United States 30 years ago as the survivors of the Mariel boatlift.

Where: Macha Theatre, 1107 North Kings Rd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
When: Saturday, September 10, 8 P.M.
Tickets: http://www.goldstar.com/events/west-hollywood-ca/voices-from-mariel
Telephone contact: 310-918-4283

The award winning documentary,  with a special introduction by Actor/Musician Steven Bauer is coming to Los Angeles.  There is limited seating;  hurry and purchase your tickets at Goldstar.com.

Visit the Voices From Mariel web-page for more information on the film, or to purchase the the DVD.

Testimony of Rafael Lincoln Diaz Balart, Fidel Castro's former brother-in-law, before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearing on the Communist Threat to the United States Through the Caribbean.

Excerpts from the May 3, 1960 hearing, keep in mind that Mr. Diaz Balart answered the questions in English. 

The Batista and Castro dictatorships: 

Senator KEATING. Now, let me ask you this. Do you consider the Castro dictatorship worse than the Batista dictatorship ?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. It is very different. The Batista dictatorship was only a political dictatorship. The Castro dictatorship can only be compared in America, I think, to Peron, and even much worse than Peron, because the Castro dictatorship is a complete and a, total dictatorship. I think that is the first real example of absolute and complete totalitarian government in the American Hemisphere. And, besides that, and above all, is the first real Communist state in our hemisphere.

Senator KEATING. You consider it a Communist state?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Absolutely. I don't think there is any doubt in this moment in the minds of any that is a student of the Communist tactics and the Communist struggle. The point is that, as I have told several times -- for instance, when they asked me is Castro a Communist, I remember a professor that I had in the law school, that always taught also when you are going to talk about a very important matter you should start sharpening the terminology, and it is important when somebody asks if Castro or is anybody a Communist, it is important to know what do they mean by Communist.

Now, Castro is not a card holder of the Communist Party in Cuba, never has been. But, at the same time, the card holder of the Socialistic Party, or the Communist Party in Cuba, maybe a lot of them are less dangerous and less important members of the Communist machinery.

What happens is that Castro is a member of the Third International, which they don't, have a card never.

I want to affirm, with all my faith and all my knowledge, that Fidel Castro is the most important and most dangerous member in the Western Hemisphere of the Communist International machinery since the Russian revolution.

On the murder of Manolo Castro:

Mr. SOURWINE. Was he tried for the murder?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. No.

Mr. SOURWINE. You said he had to go before the court. What did you mean?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. In the preliminary procedures of the court -- but he did not continue with that. He went, to Bogota at that moment.

Mr. SOURWINE. Fidel Castro went to Bogota?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Yes.

Mr. SOURWINE. Did the Court absolve him of the killing of Manolo Castro?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. No. I think it was not held -- the hearing was not held.

On the murder of Fernandez Caral:

Mr. SOURWINE. Did you know Fernandez Caral?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Yes; he was a sergeant of the police body of the Havana University.

Mr. SOURWINE. Is he still alive?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. No; he was killed by Fidel Castro.

Mr. SOURWINE. How do you know this?

Mr. Diaz BALART. Because Fidel Castro had told to all my friends after he killed Castro that he was going to have to kill Fernandez Caral, because the sergeant had told that he was going to put Fidel in jail because of the previous killing.

On Raul Castro:

Mr. SOURWINE. Do you know Raul Castro?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Yes, sir.

Mr. SOURWINE. He is Fidel Castro's brother?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Yes, Sir.

Mr. SOURWINE. Do you know whether he is a Communist?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. He is a very well trained Communist agent.

Mr. SOURWINE. How do yon know this?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Because he went to Prague, after he had already become a member of the Communist movement, ideology -- he was trained there. When he came back, he was got by the police in the airport with Communist propaganda, and when he was released from the prison, he talked with my brother, Waldo, and he, told to him that he was in prison, but that he was ready not only to be in prison, but to die for the Communist cause.

Mr. SOURWINE. Do you how Raul Castro became a Communist?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Yes, because Fidel Castro put him in contact with the intellectual machinery of the Communist Party, being Raul a very young man, and they indoctrinated him.

Mr. SOURWINE. Do you remember telling us that Fidel Castro gave his brother Raul copies of Marx's works?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Yes. That was part of the indoctrination that I just told you.

Mr. SOURWINE. How do you know he did?

Mr. DIAZ BALART. Because I was there, and I knew both of them.

This is just the tip of the ole iceberg of the fascinating reading on Cuban History available at Latin American Studies.

If you're in a hurry to visit Cuba while it's still a totalitarian slave state, make sure you ask your tour guide about this.

To eliminate and punish those deemed unfit for his revolution while using them for free labor, Fidel Castro presided over a closed-door meeting within the regime’s hierarchy. The resulting plan was to create a network of concentration camps to intern the thousands of "unfit." First it was named "Plan Fidel." But Castro, cunningly, wanted his name out of it. It was to be called UMAP (Military Units to Help Production).

Castro ordered that his agents - at night - go house to house to apprehend at gun point all the males that fit the profile of what he called, "the scum of society," for example: gays, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of other Protestant religions.

Castro's thugs went through every city, neighborhood and city block, arresting thousands of men (17 years old and up). The arrested were taken to police stations with the excuse of checking their personal ID cards – cards that all citizens of Castro's Cuba are required to carry.

At the police station, they were thrown into overcrowded cells and later taken to secret police facilities, movie houses, stadiums, warehouses, etc. In those detention centers they were photographed, fingerprinted and forced to sign under duress a confession declaring themselves the "scum of society," in exchange for their release. The ones who signed were released until they were summoned to the dreaded concentration camps. Those who refused to sign remained in jail and endured physical and psychological torture until they did sign.

The concentration camps were built in isolated areas of the province of Camagüey. They were like Hitler's camps, but without crematoriums. They have the electrified barbed wire fences, guards with machine guns and police dogs, etc. Something never seen before in Cuba's history.

Beginning in November 1965, people already classified were summoned to the camps. They arrived by train, bus, truck and other police and military vehicles. And so began the humiliation, suffering, torture and hard labor for those thousands of unfortunate men and boys. Many committed suicide while others died as a result of hunger and disease - with no medical attention - torture and execution. Many suffered solitary confinement, beating, rape and mutilation. The traumatized survivors remember that in the UMAP, "they never received humane treatment."

In July 1968 the name "UMAP" was erased from the camps. Castro's regime cosmetically transformed them into "Military Units." And all the paperwork associated with the UMAP was destroyed. New plans were created to continue confining young men discontent with Castro's communist revolution, selecting people for the same reasons as before. But this time they would receive a pitiful salary for their long and harsh working hours while living under very difficult and inhumane conditions – Castro’s lame attempt to satisfy international pressure.

This network of concentration/hard labor camps continues today as a way to repress and intimidate people, and to obtain cheap labor. Castro’s gulag network of camps and prisons is estimated at over 200 - before 1959, Cuba had just 4 prisons.

There's more, much more about Cuba's concentration camps at Totalitarian Images -  Concentration Camps in Cuba:  The UMAP.

H/T:  Agustin

Yale professor, brilliant author, and good friend Carlos Eire corrects the revisionist history presented as fact in Estela Bravo's documentary, "Operation Pedro Pan: Flying Back to Cuba."

Imagine how you’d feel if you were once rescued from a soul-crushing totalitarian regime –not unlike that of the Third Reich – and you then you spent the rest of your life contending with accounts that portray your rescuers as evil, and your escape as a crime against humanity.

Welcome to the world of the Pedro Pan airlift children.

Recently, a new documentary from Cuba has been making the rounds in a few American cities, as  part of a cultural exchange program between Castrolandia and the United States: “Operation Peter Pan: Flying Back to Cuba.”  The latest venue for this film was Los Angeles.

I haven’t seen this film because I live in the boondocks, but it has already caused me lots of grief.

This documentary deals with the airlift that brought over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children to the United States between December 1960 and October 1962, a chapter in Cuban and American history that has never attracted much attention, but has always been of great interest to the Orwellian Ministry of Truth in Havana, whose business it is to rewrite history.  Estela Bravo, the film’s director, lives in Cuba and has dedicated her career, much like Leni Riefenstahl,  to ensuring that the exploits of a mad despot look really good on screen.

Since I was one of those 14,000 children who are the subject of Bravo’s film, I’ve been following its American tour in the press, on the internet, and in email reports.

The most disturbing account I’ve seen thus far was published in the New York Daily News on Sunday, April 10th 2011, and is currently featured in the web site for High Point Media, the American distributor of Bravo’s film.¹ Albor Ruiz, the author, distorts the history of the airlift along the very same lines as the Castro regime has been doing for years, so, being a professional historian, all I can assume is that this twisted history must come straight from the film, or from some of the other Castroite-directed accounts that pollute library shelves and the internet.

I can’t comment on the film, since I haven’t seen it.  But I must contest the Ruiz review and its warped take on our history, which is now being used to advertise the film.

First,  our exodus must be set into context.  The final tally of 14,000 is just the tip of the iceberg.  When the airlift ceased in October 1962, because Fidel Castro suddenly refused to let any of his subjects leave his island, the number of children lined up to take part in this airlift stood around 80,000.  Add the thousands of others who left without their parents, but not as part of the airlift, and the total figure of instant orphans easily surpasses 100,000. At that time Cuba had a population of only six million. Do the math, and hold your breath.  The numbers speak for themselves: a huge percentage of Cuban parents were not just willing, but eager, to get their kids off the island.

You have to ask yourself why.

Castrolandia’s Ministry of Truth – and Albor Ruiz of The New York Post –  would have you believe that our airlift was concocted by the government of the United States as a nefarious Cold War scheme, the objective of which is never clear. As their version has it, the evil Yanquis tricked Cuban parents into “falsely” thinking that their parental rights were about to be revoked by the state.

Total nonsense. The reason our parents sent us here was not due to any rumor spread by Americans and their agents, but because of what we were experiencing already.  The Castroite Revolution demanded total devotion from all of us children, our parents be damned. Once the state took over all of the schools, we were held hostage by it every day, indoctrinated until our brains could take no more, forced into “Revolutionary” errands, jammed into agricultural labor camps, dressed in Pioneer uniforms, forced to march in lockstep and chant slogans, warned never, ever to attend religious services, and, at the age of eighteen, drafted in the armed forces.  Some of us were even being sent to the Soviet Union or its satellites behind the Iron Curtain.  Our parents had no say in any of this. Worst of all, we were constantly admonished to report on anyone in our family who dared to criticize these arrangements.

The facts speak for themselves, and can be verified through empirical research.  Our parents were already losing us and they a real tough choice to make: do we let Castrolandia steal our kids or do we send them somewhere else where the state won’t claim their mind and soul?

Logic comes into play too.  Why would the U.S. government orphan so many children and fund their upkeep, but make no effort to publicize their plight ?  It makes no sense. Our exodus was a nearly invisible event, of which most of the world remained woefully ignorant.  Check it out:  I dare you to find more than a handful of news reports about the airlift from the early 1960's.

Second, the long-term separation of the children and parents was caused by  the Castro regime, not the United States.  The plan every Pedro Pan family had was to reunite immediately in the United States, with the hopes of one day returning to a free Cuba.  As soon as we arrived in the U.S., our parents were granted entry visas by the State Department.  Unfortunately, though their American visas came quickly, the Castro regime not only refused to grant our parents exit permits at a reasonable pace, it actually put obstacles in their path and harassed them. Many fathers, especially, were not allowed to leave at all.  Then the final blow came in October 1962.  Although thousands of us still had parents in Cuba, the Castro regime closed the door and refused them the right to leave.  Those who tried to find some way out through an embassy – such as my mother – were often denied the right to leave, repeatedly.  No amount of pleading from anyone changed Castrolandia’s policy, until late in 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson’s administration paid a high ransom and the Freedom Flights began to deliver our parents here very slowly, as if from a dripping faucet. By then, most of us had already spent what seemed like an eternity without our fathers and mothers.  And some parents never made it out at all, like my father.

Third, one must ask: if the Cuban authorities had any real concern for us children, and saw the airlift as an evil American scheme, why did they allow us to leave and then prevent our parents from joining us?  And why did the Cuban authorities harass us and our families at the Havana airport, with strip searches and an interminable wait in a soundproof glass enclosure known as “the fishbowl”?

I had a chance to put these questions to someone who was very high up in the Castro regime at that time, Carlos Franqui, a close associate of Fidel Castro and editor of his regime’s propaganda rag, Revolución.  Like so many of the Maximum Leader’s cronies, Franqui was eventually purged and banished  into exile. Shortly before his death,  he came to lecture here at Yale, where I teach.  At dinner, when I quizzed Franqui , he had a brutally simple answer to the questions above. “We loved it,”  he said, smiling, “because anything that would destroy the bourgeois family was good for us.”

Franqui’s sarcastic confession can be taken at face value because of one more undeniable fact: the instant that all exits from Castrolandia were blocked in October 1962, Fidel’s goons arrested all those who were running the airlift in Havana, and imprisoned them for two decades.  So, you see, the Cuban authorities knew exactly what was going on and who was responsible, but had refused to stop it on purpose.  Only when the usefulness of the family-wrecking airlift was derailed by the fallout from the Missile Crisis did they decide to act; and then, hypocritically, they punished those brave souls for their great service to the so-called Revolution.

And ever since they shut down the airlift and trapped our parents, this corrupt regime has been trying to whitewash its guilt and portray our parents as morons and our rescue as sheer Yanqui devilry.

Lord have mercy.

Only utter desperation can make a parent to let go of a child, especially in circumstances where there is no guarantee that they will ever see that child again. Our parents made a heroic decision.  Please do not let anyone trick you into thinking that they were easily or needlessly fooled, or that anyone else but Fidel Castro and his henchmen bear the blame for the suffering we all endured.  Also, do not let anyone trick you into thinking that most of us Pedro Pan kids see ourselves as victims. Most of us are immensely grateful to those who rescued us from slavery.

---

¹(http://highpointmediagroup.posterous.com/new-documentary-operation-peter-pan-flying-ba

From The Americano:

I write this short introduction for I know both Ernesto Fernández Travieso, the Jesuit priest who presents what his brother Tomás Fernández Travieso witnessed as a political prisoner in Cuba when he was 18 years old. I knew their mother who protected me while worrying about her two sons. This is a tale of how Cuba arrested, tried and executed those who opposed the regime. They paid the ultimate sacrifice. We honor them by remembering.   – Guillermo I. Martínez

The story is posted in its entirety below the fold.

My brother Tommy recounts his trial in Havana on the day of the invasion of Bay of Pigs April 17, 1961 when the communist government, as retaliation, began to condemn political prisoners to the firing squad. This first group of eight was caught working in the resistance movement weeks or months before. Tapia Ruano (23), Campaneria (21), and Tomas (18) were students. My brother was the only witness in what happened that night.  Ernesto Fernández Travieso, S.J

“50? YEARS AGO

By Tomás Fernández-Travieso.

The sun was setting when we emerged from the trial. Luis Fernández-Caubí was the only lawyer that dared to defend our case. The trial took only 20 minutes; it was interrupted several times by the noise of the army tanks leaving La Cabaña fortress (site of the trials) racing towards Playa Girón (the Bay of Pigs): it was April 17, 1961.

Only those sentenced to die before the firing squads were kept in the chapel. The only one that we knew was already there was Carlos Rodríguez Cabo. The prosecutors were demanding a 30 year sentence for his partner in the struggle against Castro, Efrén Rodríguez López. Efrén would stay behind in the ward where we were jailed as they took us to be tried and when he came to say goodbye to us, very upset, he said: “Look, I hate to ask you this but I am sure you won’t be coming back here (meaning he was sure we were all destined for the firing squad). Say hello to Carlitos for me when you see him”. He could not utter another word as he embraced us crying.

Handcuffed, we crossed the drawbridge. Below, in the pit, a solitary pole stood in front of a wall of sandbags. Virgilio Campanería-Angel and I were handcuffed together. Alberto Tapia Ruano was by himself.

Upon arriving back at the prison, many cellmates greeted us in silence from the courtyard across the moat. We were taken through a galley where the guards were sleeping, until we came to the chapel (interior galley split into four cells with a central corridor).

We kept on walking along a long corridor. Four guards were escorting us. We crossed three barred gates with thick padlocks. On entering the chapel, from one of the cells, Efrén’s, strong and determined voice, greeted us: “It seems that they want to “tronar” (shoot) me too. They raised my sentence from 30 years to “paredón” (death by firing squad). Besides, Carlitos was all alone and I could not leave him like that”, added Efrén, laughing. We shared the information that we had of the landing at Playa Girón that would aid and support the anti- Castro clandestine movement. Efrén and Carlitos were from Revolutionary Rescue; Virgilio, Alberto and I were from the Revolutionary Student Directory. They put us in a cell illuminated by a fluorescent lamp with two berths without mattresses and a hole in the floor that served as the toilet.

A few moments later, they brought Lázaro Reyes Benítez and Filiberto Rodríguez Ravelo, both from Güines. Filiberto had been nick-named “the Martian” because, since being arrested and brought to La Cabaña, he insisted that he was an alien and that he was in constant contact with the Martians.

A little later on, they brought José Calderín who, along with Lázaro and Filiberto, was taken to another cell. Finally, they brought Carlos Calvo Martínez; like Virgilio and Tapita, he was 21 years old. He was charged with planting the bomb at El Encanto (Cuba’s largest and finest store). They placed him in our cell.

We were all there. A guard delivered our sentences. They changed my capital punishment to 30 years of prison “because these people cannot afford to shoot a minor”, all of them told me. I could no longer share their jokes and singing. I became the repository of their memories, their link with life. I would bear witness to their sacrifice.

Hours went by. I do not know how many, time did not exist there. We prayed the rosary, we all had rosaries.

Finally three locks rattled and boot steps resounded in the chapel. Sergeant Moreno called the first name: “Carlos Rodríguez Cabo “.” Present “, he shouted firmly. Two guards with rifles escorted him up to the door of our cell. We embrace each other across the bars. He entrusted his daughter to me, he was leaving her his ring which he gave me as he said: “Courage, good luck to you”.

In a few minutes, the sound of the FAL rifles filled the chapel, followed by a single pistol shot. “Sergeant Moreno is the one that gives the coup de grace”, they had told me.

The three locks were opened again, this time for Efrén: “Present”, he responded .He embraced me through the bars; he was leaving his lighter to his wife.

The FALs sounded close by, followed by the single “coup de grace”.

Virgilio was third. In our last hug he said to me: “Tommy, I am going to shout a Viva Cristo Rey, Viva Cuba Libre and Viva el Directorio that are going to rattle their cojones. Alberto (Tapita) clung to me: “I hope that I am next “. We embrace as we listen to Virgilio fulfilling his promise, the FALs sounded, this time there were three pistol shots.

” Alberto Tapia Ruano “, Dark-haired person called. ” The Virgencita heard me “, said Tapita happily. He ran out quickly.

Carlos Calvo and I were left alone in our cell.

“Do you think that Tapita counted Virgilio’s coup de grace shots? There were three. Anyhow he is going to see him on the ground; there is no time to remove the bodies in between executions … “he said.

The fourth was Filiberto, who, admitting his prank, confessed to me: “Not even the Martians can save me from the thunder (paredón) now “. He left singing the National Anthem. They gave him two coup de grace shots.

” Lázaro Reyes Benítez “.” Present “. He hugged me and was gone. “José Calderín”: “Present”. The penultimate hug and he went out.

Carlitos Calvo was the last one. I already knew all there was to know about him. Before they opened the cell, he asked me: “Count my last shots so you can tell me up there”.

They were eight in La Cabaña, 50 years ago.

TOMÁS FERNÁNDEZ-TRAVIESO, ex-member of the anti-communist Students Revolutionary Directory, was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Castro regime. When his play “Prometheus Unchained” was smuggled out of prison and published in Miami, his sentence was increased. He served 19 years. His novel “El Silencio del Ayer” (Yesterday’s Silence) was published recently. He lives in Miami.

Carlos Eire discussing his latest book, "Waiting to Die in Miami" at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, Thursday, April 21 as part of the George Washington Forum on American ideas, politics and institutions.  It's fabulous, revealing, instructive, and heartbreaking. Take tissue.

Thank you Carlos for sharing your Cuban soul, and bearing witness to Cuba's true history.

H/T: Honey

Steven Bauer visted Babalú at Cuba Nostalgia to promote the documentary ¨Voices From Mariel, which chronicles the Mariel boatlift experience.

He mingled with the crowd, posed for photos, and talked about documentary.  He was great.

This wonderful documentary is available at www.voicesfrommariel.com.

I'm often amazed at how little people here seem to know about the waves of Cuban immigrants refugees to this country.

The older folks remember that in the early 60's there were some displaced Cuban children that needed homes. This they only know if one of the children ended up in their neighborhood. I'm referring, of course, to the Pedro Pan Flights, where 14,000 unaccompanied minors were sent to the U.S. by their terrified parents, hoping to save them from communism. They did. At great personal sacrifice. Read that story here.

But there are other stories. Some very dramatic, some that end tragically, some with happy endings. As I start thinking about it, I realize that just about every Cuban has a "Cuando Sali de Cuba" story to tell.

The beautiful dvd Voices from Mariel tells the stories of those that left Cuba on the Mariel Boat Lift in 1980. That exodus of those 125,000 Cubans made the world sit up, take notice and hold its collective breath.

By the way, just because someone came to the U.S. via Mariel doesn't make them a felon. (If you believe that, you've watched Scarface a few too many times, but that's not important right now!)

I have an amazing DVD to give away that tells that story. It's called Voices from Mariel and it's just beautiful and oh so honest.

To enter the drawing, please click over to My Big, Fat Cuban Family and leave a comment on the post titled Voices from Mariel - A Giveaway and tell me your coming to America story.

• Start off with....Cuando sali de Cuba.... tell me about your travels and how you found things in this country.
• If you send it by email and with photos, I'll be happy to post it on my blog, with your permission, of course.
• In fact, I think every Cuban should write down their story and share it.

It's a beautiful film. I promise you'll enjoy it. We are all one people, we Cuban-Americans. No matter when we arrived here in the U.S.

I'll pick a winner randomly on Saturday evening, May 21 at 6 pm Pacific.

Now, come on....Tell me your Coming to America story.

Happy 20 de Mayo!

Everyone knows what castro's idea of May Day is - tanks, turbas, thugs and long, long, long speeches about dictatorship of the proletariat and yanqui imperialismo. It's hard to mess up a holiday to the extent he has.

But over in Chile, a nation that in 1973 escaped castro's grasp, fought him off and kicked out his 40,000 goons --err, 'trainers' -- before he could create a second slave state (he tried), May Day has a different meaning: worker empowerment.

What happened there 30 years ago today is something that looks like a small thing that turns out wasn't such a small thing.

Chile swapped its castroite food ration books for La Libreta pension savings books - which are full of money. José Piñera shows what one looks like.

May 1 marks the 30th anniversary of the world's first pension privatization. It took Chile's bankrupt Social Security system and turned it into a system of personal retirement accounts. Investor's Business Daily in 'Chile's Private Social Security System Turns 30' describes why Chile's pension reform succeeded and why it can work here, too.

By privatizing pensions, Chileans liberated themselves not only from castro, whose calling card was murder - even of his obedient pawn, Salvador Allende - but from Otto von Bismarck, too.

Chile had a Social Security system exactly like ours that was borrowed from the Prussians in 1925. (Ours came in 1935). These Bismarckian set-ups, where a younger group of workers pays the retirement of an older group of workers, sound good in theory but they always goes bankrupt. That's because of demographics - more workers taking benefits than paying them in. On top of this, all kinds of special interests are grabbing at the money coming in - which is why our 'trust fund' is bankrupt. Well, Chile had the same thing in 1980.

But unlike us, Chile privatized and changed its fate forever. On Nov. 4, 1980, the same day the great Ronald Reagan was elected U.S. president, Chile passed a law saying pensions would go private. Had we done that too on that date, we'd all be taking home something like $55,000 Social Security pensions instead of $18,000 pensions (see IBD link above) we get now.

The system's architect, Labor and Social Security Secretary José Piñera specifically chose May 1 for the implementation to change the meaning of the holiday. Instead of a nasty castrofest, May 1 became a day of real dignity for workers.

Chile maybe didn't know so at the time, but it was enacting the biggest de-castro-ing agent ever invented. Nobel-prize-winning economist Gary Becker said as much. Money was yanked out of the greedy, grasping hand of big government and put into individual accounts where workers make all their own choices - what to save, how to invest, when to retire.

And by a law embedded in the 1980 constitution by Pinera himself - no government can ever lay a hand on these accounts. Result: workers started to care about the entire economic fate of the country because it affects their pensions, instead of what they could extract as special interests from the government. A culture of property and personal responsibility took root.

That's toxic to the likes of castro and all the new waves of pawns he's got out there claiming redistribution is the answer.

Meanwhile, Chile's accumulated savings soon came to equal 100% of GNP and as savings built all that extra cash went on to develop the country. That's why Chile is a nice place to live - it didn't happen out of nothing. It now looks and feels just like California during its better days except with highway signs in Spanish ... and the country has NO NET DEBT. Eat your heart out, bearded beast!

The revered hero of Cuban Independence, General Antonio Maceo Grajales, who fell in battle on Dec. 7 1896.

"I have never anticipated any benefit from Spain; she has always despised us, and it would be unworthy to believe otherwise. Liberty is conquered with the edge of the machete, it is not asked for; to beg for one's rights is a device of cowards, incapable of exercising such rights. Nor do I expect any benefit from the Americans; everything must be accomplished through our own efforts; 'tis best to rise or fall without assistance than to contract debts of gratitude with so powerful a neighbor."

From Latin American Studies:

General Antonio Maceo Grajales was second-in-command of the Cuban army of independence. Commonly known as "the Titan of Bronze," Maceo was one of the outstanding guerrilla leaders in nineteenth century Latin America, easily comparable to José Antonio Páez of Venezuela.

The son of a Venezuelan mulatto and Afro-Cuban woman, Maceo began his fight for Cuban liberation by enlisting as a private in the army in 1868 when the Ten Years War began. Five years later, he was promoted to the rank of general because of his bravery and his demonstrated ability to outmaneuver the Spanish army. In 1878 when most of the Cubans generals believed that their armies could not defeat the Spaniards, Maceo refused to surrender without winning Cuban independence and the abolition of slavery. Ultimately he was forced to leave Cuba.

He returned to Cuba when war with Spain began again. His most famous campaign in the War of Cuban liberation was his invasion of western Cuba when his troops, mostly Afro-Cubans on horseback, covered more than 1,000 miles in 92 days and fought the enemy in 27 separate encounters. Spanish general Valeriano Weyler pursued him vigorously if only to curtail Maceo's destruction of the Cuban sugar industry. On December 7, 1896 Maceo was captured and killed as he attempted to rejoin Maximo Gómez' forces. His death prompted yet another congressional resolution for belligerent rights for Cuba. 

For more read Magdalen M. Pandos detailed account here.

 If you're in the LA area, you don't want to miss the esteemed Manuel Marquez-Sterling presenting his important and wonderful book, "Cuba 1952-1959 The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power."

Where:  Eso Won Bookstore
4331 Degnan Blvd. LA.
90008
(323) 290-1048

When: Friday, November 19 2010, 7:00pm - 9:00pm

 Introduction from the bookstore's website:

Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power

by Manuel Marquez-Sterling

Manuel Márquez-Sterling was born in Havana, Cuba. He has lived in the US since 1960. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Plymouth State University. His publications include Historia de la Isla de Cuba (co-authored with his father, Carlos Márquez-Sterling), Carlos Márquez-Sterling: Memorias de un Estadista, and "Fernán González, First Count of Castile: the man and the legend." He is also known for his acclaimed historical novels La Cúpula and Hondo Corre el Cauto. The latter topped the Miami Nuevo Heraldo best seller list. An accomplished playwright, his works in that genre include La Salsa del Diablo (The Devil's Sauce), which won the Madrid-Miami Letras de Oro Award in 1993, and Corneille's Dream, winner of the 1996 Southern New Hampshire University Spectrum Award for One Act Play. Following the example of his grandfather (Manuel Márquez-Sterling [1872-1934]), the author also writes a long running op-ed column for the (Spanish language) Diario Las Americas. Before becoming a historian he studied law at the University of Havana in the 50s, where at graduation he received the Ricardo Dolz Arango National Law Award, the top University of Havana law student prize. His law practice in Cuba included serving as Public Defender and arguing a constitutional law case before Cuba's Supreme Court. Hopefully you will be able to take time out from your busy day and c'mon by and enjoy what should be a memorable event with the Los Angeles Cuban Community.

My family left Cuba in early 1961.

My brother was on the first Pedro Pan flight in December of 1960. Happily, my family was only separated for a few very tense months. But we were part of the lucky few who managed to leave the country rather quickly.

Once reunited, my father vowed we'd never be separated again and so when my older sisters were to be married in California, he packed up the family and we never looked back.

We lived in Miami for the first 3 years of our exile, before my parents moved us across the country and so we made our lives in Southern California.

As Cubans in California - "en el exilio del exilio" - we managed to find other Cuban families and connected with the familiar community of people who spoke our language and recognized our customs and our food.

My sisters and me. Miami, circa 1962.

There were other waves of Cuban refugees. But unarguably, those who landed in Miami during the early 1960's and 70's were the ones who built that city.

I've just received a copy of the beautiful book, Historic Photos of Cuban Miami by Jennifer Ortiz. With nearly 200 black and white photographs and detailed captions and stories. It has simultaneously captivated my attention, made me joyful and fiercely proud, but also broken my heart.

Cuban exiles are amazing people, individually and collectively.

My mom poured over the book for hours, pointing out familiar faces and reciting the names of the former presidents of Cuba who lived in Miami in exile. We sat together and turned pages and it was like I was a child once again. I sat quietly as each photo triggered a memory and she told me story after story.

She pointed to a photo, "My first visit to Miami was aboard the S.S. Florida." She remembered her excitement and how she and my dad packed as if for a world cruise rather than a weekend trip.

She marveled over the photos of the historic Vizcaya Estate and laughed out loud as she saw the photos and remembered moments from the ground-breaking television show, "Que Pasa, USA?"

The folks at Turner Publishing have generously sent me a copy of this gorgeous coffee table book to give away. Yes, to give away. (I know. Shut up.)

To be entered in the drawing for this beautiful book, please leave a comment on this same post over at MBFCF. (<---click the link and leave a comment over there.)

I'd love to hear your answers to these 3 questions:

• Where in Cuba is your family from?
• What year did they arrive in the U.S?
• Do you still have family there?

I'll be choosing a winner on Monday, June 21, 2010 at 11 am Pacific Time.

By the way, this is my answer:

"Havana. 1961. Yes."

This is all I could gather and I posted on the Bi-Weekly and here as you can see. I'm sure that you guys have much, much more, goodnight!

There was a time when the MSM sometimes did their job vis á vis Cuba.  To all those who want to end the embargo and normalize relations with Cuba, and to all those taking cheap shots at the Cuban exile community because some exercised their free speech rights and complained because they were  offended that lackeys for the butchers came to Miami and played some music, as if there hasn't been 51 years of barbaric brutality in Cuba; well you can shove it up your ass and go straight to hell.

Don't like Gitmo?  Well then I can't wait to hear the demands to shut down Cuba's gulags and free the political prisoners held there.  I can't wait for the demands to end human rights violations in Cuba.

Read this account of life in the tropical gulag circa 1963 from Time, and multiply by decades. 

"...All told, the OAS commission studied 1,350 case histories. It is estimated that there are some 75,000 political prisoners (one out of every 94 Cubans) behind bars. The commission found that they have no human rights, that they are treated in a "humiliating, oppressive and despotic manner," and that the Cuban prison system seems openly designed to degrade its victims to the level of animals.

Verdicts in Advance. Arrests are almost always violent and without warrants; arresting officers rarely show proof that they are agents of the law, but burst into their quarry's home at night, brush off his explanations, wreck his belongings, pocket his valuables and hustle him off to jail in his underwear. Verdicts, said one court stenographer who took part in many of the trials, are "by remote control," the judge's opinion often written in advance.

In old colonial fortresses, says the commission, dungeons flooded by underground seepage and infested with rats have been reopened for political prisoners. A former judge testified that "special-punishment prisoners are put into cells too small to lie down in, where they can never bathe and their physiological functions must be performed on the floor." At a huge prison on the Isle of Pines, off Cuba's south coast, 10,000 prisoners live in a space for 5,000. Those consigned to solitary are dropped naked into pits and regularly drenched with water. Says one Isle of Pines prisoner, confined to solitary for six months: "An individual can't go on being naked. It's really terrible, for one becomes an animal." The place has also been mined—to kill the prisoners in case of invasion.

Fun for the Guards. Common criminals are assigned as trusties in the political prisons, are encouraged to beat the anti-Castro inmates with clubs and lengths of pipe. The regular guards are even worse. At the Isle of Pines during the Bay of Pigs invasion, all prisoners were herded into the open, stripped, forced to kneel and advised to pray. A prisoner named René Santana prayed aloud that the invaders would triumph; a guard blew his brains out. At La Cabaña in Havana, the guards amused themselves by ordering prisoners outside, where they are stripped, beaten with gun butts and jabbed with bayonets. Among those testifying was a woman whose husband was in prison; he had "a bleeding furrow on his wrists," the result of his being "strung up like a ham."

Food is a mockery. Rotten beans—"a special treat"—caused gagging, bloody vomiting and dysentery among 95% of the prisoners on the Isle of Pines. Those who fall sick are usually left to cure themselves, or die. A former Isle of Pines inmate described a typical case: "A man named Yáñez had an attack of epilepsy and fell from the second floor. He remained some ten or twelve hours without attention ... A few hours after he was taken out of there, he died."

This nightmare continues 90 miles off  the US coast, the place travel agents can't wait to sell you a ticket to, the place where members of congress, many having enjoyed the bloody tyrants hospitality, can't wait to sell their states goods.  This is the place where so-called Cuba "experts" talk about reform, and the need to get beyond "cold war thinking and policy." 

I think it's time to stop covering up for mass murdering dictators and demand justice for their victims. 

Read the rest of the article at Time.

On Wednesday 27-January, Manuel Márquez-Sterling will deliver a talk in Spanish at the Miami presentation of his book, Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power. His talk will be followed by a panel discussion with question and answer period, and book signing. Panelists are Marcos Antonio Ramos, Alberto Luzárraga, and Sylvia G. Iriondo.

The book presentation is sponsored by sponsored by Herencia/Cuban Cultural Heritage and the University of Miami's Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies (ICCAS). It will be held on January 27, 2010 at the University of Miami’s Casa Bacardi, 1531 Brecia Ave., Coral Gables, FL. The program begins at 7:00 pm.

For reservations and other event information please contact ICCAS at: (305) 284-CUBA (2822)

(This event is a Spanish-language program for the English-language book.)

The Castro regime finally gets one right when reporting their disgust towards the new security travel screening measures that are taking place around the world. They stated, as Reuters published on their website:

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba denounced as "anti-terrorist paranoia" new U.S. security measures for air travelers from the island and 13 other countries, but passengers waiting to fly from Havana said on Monday thorough checks before heading to the United States were nothing new. Rest of Article

Right here in this statement, you can find in the quote, the one thing they got right. It sure is a ridiculous anti-terrorist paranoia, yes, where we, America is suppose to be winning the "War Against terrorism" we have to subject everyone to walk into an X-Ray type of booth and nakedly scanned. This because some crazy Al Qaeda wannabee decides to make a name for himself and tries to blowup a plane. Could this homemade device ever have worked? We'll never really know but nevertheless, Americans, very soon, will have to experience an uncomfortable and unnecessarily revealing revelation. Yes, here the Castro regime is right on the money, it sure is an "anti-terrorist paranoia." But let's only apply this quote to the present Al Qaeda situation because it cannot run any further than that, the quote runs out of legs, in an abrupt and crippling manner. It hits a solid wall, actually.

Let's go back to the October 1962, where the Castro regime was caught red-handed with ballistic missiles pointing towards the U.S.A. Hmm.. this sure looks like a terrorist plot to me, does it to you? A major one, I think. But they argue now, in 2010, that they are not a terrorist country. They argue but they are allies with every single country mentioned on the list of 14. Here are the other 13 (Iran, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen). What about the Black Friday attempt? What about the arms they ran into all the Communist uprisings in Central America? What about all the intelligence they gather up and communicate to every country that is on that list and dozens more, like Venezuela and Russia? And there are many, many more reasons why they should be placed on this list. Why, they should be right on top of the damn list! I could recall several speeches by Fidel himself, remember him? Some very recently, where he points his finger and states how the "Imperialist" Americans are the enemy and the terrorist of the world. And just recently the Castro regime performed a military exercise throughout the whole island, yes, just in case "AMERICA" would attack. I call that an "Anti-Terrorist Paranoia" don't you think so, since America is Cuba's terrorist. The Cuban people do not have to worry about America attacking them, we all know that. Besides, they are busy defending themselves of the daily attacks from the Castro regime! Let's lift that travel embargo and now?

As for airport screening, the Castro regime tops them all off. Ask all the Cuban-Americans about airport screening. I'm talking about when Cubans were allowed to leave the island, it doesn't apply after 1973, when it stopped. Ask them about airport screening they had to experience. Ask them why they were only allowed to leave with only the cloth on their back. Ask them why they could only take a certain amount of money and their personal jewelry (wedding rings and a couple of bracelets). Ask them how their homes, along with their land, was taken away. Ask them how the Castro "Milicianos" and "Milicianas" performed their padded searches before the boarding of the Freedom Flights.

If you're interested in "The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power,"  then tune in and listen to an interview with Manuel Márquez-Sterling and R. Rembert Aranda on Blog Talk Radio's  "Speak Your Mind,"  hosted by Cubanology's Jose Reyes.

The books author Márquez-Sterling, and his collaborator, R. Rembert Aranda will discuss their new book, "Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power."

Cuba 1952-1959 unearths a lost world to reveal events in Cuba during the critical seven years of the Cuban revolution. It brings to light long-buried fragments of history and masterfully pieces them together to lay bare how castro really came to power, and stands as living documentation of the Lost Republic of Cuba, laid to ruin by the castro regime through terror, purposeful neglect and revisionist history.   As the son of Carlos Márquez-Sterling, the author possesses an insider's knowledge of the events leading to the end of the Republic, and the long nightmare of the castro regime.

Do not miss this show; it airs today, Thursday, November 19 at 9:00 p.m. EST.  Listen in at the show's website here, and please call in with your comments and questions.  The call-in number is (646) 915-9812.

UPDATE: In case you missed it, here is the recording of the show: