The escape from communist tyranny is an often told story in the Cuban American community. But for many other Americans, it’s a story they know little to nothing about and in today’s world, one all Americans should all know.
Via Miami Today:
Fall eyed to premiere film on early flight from Cuba
Depicting the lives of Cubans escaping the Castro regime in the ’60s and ’70s, “A New Dawn” will reopen the memory vault for children who arrived in Miami with their migrating parents, revealing stories that have not been told in over 50 years.
Originally set to premiere this month at the Mayfair Hotel where it was filmed, the documentary’s filmmaker and creator Manny Soto said he had to postpone the premiere until film festivals and viewing parties are safe to attend again, eyeing the 38th annual Miami Film Festival set for October as one of the platforms for a debut.
“It was a very traumatic time in our lives because we had to leave everything that we knew behind, including our lifestyle and in most cases family,” said Mr. Soto, who left Cuba Sept. 22, 1962 with his parents at age five.
Mr. Soto remembers how his newly arrived parents had to wake up early in the morning and try to find work. Some of those jobs were tomato and strawberry pickers and janitorial work. Immigrant Cubans would work 15-20 hours a shift and get paid only 75 cents an hour. “I call them the CEOs of what is Miami today,” he said of how Cubans began to shape Miami with their work ethic and ways of living.
“Many of them would make lines in front of hotel doors in Miami Beach hoping for the manager to yell ‘I need three for work.’ They would work setting up banquet halls and doing janitorial work,” Mr. Soto said.
His Father, Oscar, was a janitor at St. Peter and Paul School, which was the reason he went to that school free for one year, recalling how he was separated from the other American students and isolated with the other Cuban children .“I remember seeing signs on apartments building welcoming pets, but no Cubans,” he added. making it difficult to find a place to call home.
Most of first Cuban immigrants were lawyers, doctor and professionals who had to work extra hard in Miami, while thanking God and feeling grateful they had the opportunity to work, Mr. Soto said, “because they had a family to feed.”
Those were the morals and foundation that was imbedded into Mr. Soto, “to work hard for what you want and your dreams and do not expect a handout.”
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