Marta here: I'm celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: Cuban-Style with a series of stories about Cuban American families: Cuando Sali de Cuba, stories of courage and hope.
Today's story comes from MS. She owns and operates the online store, A Taste of Cuba.
*Tissue warning!*
I was born in Havana, Cuba in 1956. My mother was married to my father, I had a sister and a brother.
My father owned his own business, family owned accounting firm.
Her dad, sister and brother on car in front of their house in Cuba.
My mother is still alive and is a feisty 92 1/2 year old mother, grandmother and great grandmother!
My memories of Cuba actually begin when our life in Cuba ended.
Her brother with his nanny.By 1960 my mother and father had separated. My mother and her immediate family began to make plans to flee Castro's regime. One thing my mother promised was that Castro was taking over her home but she was not leaving anything inside for the communist to enjoy. She kept her promise. Sometimes in the wee hours of the morning she removed every piece of furniture and gave it to friends that were staying in Cuba. By the time August 1961 came around there was nothing left inside the home.
My memory of that horrible departure begins.
My mother took my sister, brother, grandmother and grandfather to the airport. We had packed a suitcase and were leaving to Miami, FL on a Pan Am airplane. We arrived at the airport. The soldiers had separated the people leaving from the people that were staying.
All of a sudden my mother and I were separated by this huge glass wall. The glass wall was a partition so that the people could not smuggle things to the family members leaving. The passengers were not allowed to take anything but a suitcase. Our suitcases where searched by the military personnel and only clothing was allowed.
I did not know what was happening, why my mother wasn't with me, I was only 4 years old? I quickly found out she was not going with us. She decided to stay behind with her brother that did not get his visa. She didn't want to leave him in Cuba by himself. By now all my aunts and uncles had left, two uncles went to Miami and one had settled in NYC.
I had never been separated from my mother before and was not happy. I started crying and having a big tantrum. Finally a soldier allowed my mother to comfort me. She hugged and kissed me, and assured me everything was going to be ok. She told me my grandparents were going to take care of me until she could join me again in a few days.
I remember I was holding my favorite doll, she told me when I got to my seat on the plane hold the doll up to the window and wave to me. She said, "Then I'll know you are ok."
After a few minutes we had to board the plane. But back then they didn't have ramps to board a plane. You actually had to walk on the tarmac to a stairway to board the airplane. I started walking and right before we boarded the plane there was a soldier making a last minute check of all boarding passengers. He took my doll and told me I could not take it in the airplane.
I started to cry that it was my only connection to my mother. I had promised her I would wave so she knew I was ok. My family pleaded with the soldier that the doll had already been checked inside and I was to wave to mother good bye. So I was able to board the plane with my doll.
I sat down next to the window, waved my dolly goodbye to mother, as I cried, the plane too off into the sky.
That was very traumatic for me, as a four year old, but nothing compared to what my family went through.
Days turned into months, it wasn't until two or three long months later my mother and my uncle were able to leave Cuba and reunite with us in Miami.
As a mature woman now, mother and grandmother myself I often think back and wonder how my mother was able to handle everything in her life. I realize how strong my mother is and her strong faith in Jesus has allowed her to sustain the turmoil.
This was very difficult to write I was reliving it.
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Marta here: I'm so grateful to M.S. for sharing her deeply personal and painful story. As a mother myself, I cannot imagine letting go of my 4 year old and putting her on a plane to another world not knowing when we would be reunited. I have tears in my eyes even as I type this.
MS owns the very cool online shop, A Taste of Cuba and has generously offered to host today's giveaway.
It's a Cuban Coffee Basket (yes, please!) that includes the following:
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Just leave a comment on this post telling MS your thoughts about her story, or tell your own.
I'll choose a winner on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 5 pm.
Thank you so much for sharing of you life in Cuba. I love Cuban coffee!
Thanks for sharing! Your mom was a brave woman and I can see why this made you emotional to write it. My hubby left Cuba at around 9 yrs old and he has very few memories…I think the trauma of leaving all that he knew to come here and not understand a word that was said, knowing he would never be back or if he would ever see the rest of his family again was probably too much to “remember”.
Thank you for sharing that story- I can see it through my tears.
This was a very moving story. It brought back memories of my departure from Cuba at the age of 7. I remember that I had wanted to take several outfits for my doll that a friend of the family had sewn. At the airport, I was told that I could only bring one outfit for my doll. I don’t know why this particular memory is so strong in my mind. Perhaps, for a 7-year-old girl this was very important!! I agree completely with Kiki’s observation that trauma can cause people to forget events. I remember that my mother always had a terrible memory about everything. She would say that she had tried so hard to forget all she left behind in Cuba, that forgetting became a habit and this affected her memory.
Wow! I cannot imagine what it must have felt to be away from your mom at that age. I cried all day my first day of class because mami was not around. Me hace pensar de todo lo que estaban dispuestos a sacrificar nuestros padres para darnos libertad y una vida mejor. I was 10 years old “Cuando sali de Cuba”, never have been back.. now 31 years later I so long to go back and see and feel and taste my homeland. I met and dated my current wife 8 years after we had arrived here in the US, we went our separate ways back then and met up 20 years later and married. She tells me that my Cuban accent was one of the things she found most attractive, now she points out that I’ve lost alot of my “Cuban accent” and it’s sad cuz it feels like you loose yourself in this melting pot we call the USA. I long for the day that our homeland is free and affords the liberties we enjoy here.thank you for sharing these stories everyone… I feel a sense of connection to my heritage just by reading.
The love of a mother, although sometimes misunderstood to us as children, is something so strong and brave. Thank God for your mother’s courage, it brought you all back together again. Your story was very touching.
What a moving story Maria Elena. Sounds similar to so many others. My family left on a Pan Am flight in August 1961 too. Do you remember the date? Ironically my parents over the years ran into two families from the same flight. We just commemorated their 50 year anniversary.
Spent a day hearing how my husbands grandmother came to the US with 2 Babies and was pregnant. Of all the things i remember it was saying how the kids slept on a suitcase she would open up and lay o the floor. Thanks for sharing and as a first generation american i am ever thankful for what was endured.
the matriarch of my family- because of her the rest of us are in this wonderful country.http://bohemianbabushka.blogspot.com/2011/09/la-tata.html
Great Story! It brought tears to my eyes. As a mother, who has never been away from my daughters more than a few days, I must say, it takes much courage to do what your mother did.
Thanks for sharing MS’s heartbreaking story. It shows what many of our mothers (fathers, brothers, sisters, etc.) had to sacrifice for the sake of living in freedom in a different land. I came in 1962 and thankfully my parents and I flew to Miami together and we left no family member in Cuba. We were some of the lucky ones!Thanks for the giveaway, Marta! You are such a sharing person (smile)!
Hola I am Maria Elena, I wrote the article on Cuando Sali de Cuba! I was very emotional writing about my memories! Thank you for all your nice thoughts! Congratulations to Kiki the winner! If you would like to check out my web site please visit http://www.atasteofcuba.net. A Cuban basket makes a great gift! Gracias! Enjoyed sharing my memories of Cuando Sali de Cuba with you!
I had to leave my all my dolls behind (why do we seem remember this so clearly?). My mother did not want to jeapordize the exit visas (yes, EXIT visas, something you only see in Cuba) she had so ardently fought to obtain and knew even a doll could cause problems if the Cuban customs worker was in a foul mood.