quote:

elena, i had no idea your parents were from cuba. are they cuban, or were they just born there?

I don't think I posted these pics after my trip a few years ago for fear of being fined $25,000 by the Bush gov. This is in reply to pique's and shiro's questions and to add to the thread started by Jeffrey.

They were both born and raised there. My mother is from a beautiful city on the Caribbean about 3 hours from Havana called Cienfuegos. Her parents were born in Cuba as well, her grandparents (my great grandparents) were from Spain. Her father owned the hardware store and did very well. They had a fantastic house which had been built around an indoor courtyard which is now a restaurant, and a lucky thing it is because it has been maintained properly, unlike the residential homes there which are crumbling to the ground.

My mother says they used to keep chicken, geese and a pig in the courtyard. They had various maids and servants to do all the housework and care for the kids.

When the man who ran the restaurant, who was Cuban-Chinese, (there was a significant Chinese ommunity in Cuba. Even Lecuona wrote a very un-PC tune for piano called "Ahí viene el chino", or "There comes the Chinaman". They traditionally sold fruit door to door in my grandparents´ time, which they would hang from a stick which they carried across their shoulders) found out that my mother and her family were the last pre-Castro residents of the house he went completely and utterly out of his way for us, allowing us to spend as much time as we wanted perusing her old house and even inviting us to a special dinner that evening which we had behind closed doors in what had been my mother's old bedroom. I imagine that he must have been worried that my mother's family will make a claim on the house if things normalize, though I know she has no interest in getting it back. Perhaps her older brother does.

A lot of the original trees were in the courtyard (they would make desserts out of the sour oranges from the tree in the picture) as well as some mahogany carved dividers in the living area which I remember seeing in old black and white photos taken in the interior, a couple of the original paintings and the entryway piece. I am missing a lot of pics which I just realized are on my parents' computer so here are just a couple I have of the visit to her house:

The courtyard taken from the rooftop:


The restaurant's administrator:



This is what remains of my grandfather's hardware store, which took up the whole corner of the block:



We went to visit my mother's family crypt, the Gutiérrez Orfila family, which my grandfather had designed and was really, really hideous!! Quite the shock to me, since my mother always spoke of it as if it were the most beautiful monument in the world. The cover had been removed and the crypt was open and had since been used by other families, you could look in and see all their bones. I'm not sure if my family's remains were still there among everyone else's.



My mother still had family (a second cousin) in a neighboring town called Trinidad whom we went to see. Here is a photo of them in front of their house:



She had a framed photo of my maternal family which was taken in the 30ies: my great great grandother, my great grandmother, my grandmother and my uncle. The picture was behind glass so I apologize for the glare



Here is a pic, which I think I have posted before, of my grandfather when he was young and attending Antioch College (he's the guy on the floor with the Rudolph Valentino hairdo. See any resemblance with the baby in the pic above (my uncle)? :


My mother's second cousin's husband shows us the only way to heat your hot water (for everything, including baths) provided to the people courtesy of the Cuban government:


Here is what seemed to be the typical Quinceañera tradition in Trinidad:


One thing I was amazed at was how competely deforested the island was. Cleary the revolution meant for a lot of agriculture to happen but the land just lies unused and bare. I recently read that Cuba imports 80% of its food.



My father's parents (German father and New Yorker mother) moved to Cuba in 1924 where my grandfather opened a button factory in Havana. Both my uncle and my father were born and raised there. I'm annoyed that most of the Havana pics are on my parents' computer. My father's family lived in various apartments in two family homes, on in the Miramar area and the other I can't recall what area it was. His family was part of the flouishing Jewish community there (which also took in a lot of the WWII refugees) and one of the first things my father did upon his return was visit the synagogue they used to attend, which now houses a number of otherwise homeless Jews still in Havana.

Our hotel in Havana was down the street from the original Scotiabank building (no longer Scotiabank, of course). My father likes to relate the story of how several times my grandfather ran out of money to pay his workers and it was thanks to the director of this bank that he stayed in business as he was friendly with him and he would lend him enough money to keep the factory going without any guarantee he would be paid back.



My father, bless his soul, spent a lot of time giving away money. He also brought bags and bags of mini-hershey chocolates to give to the kids which he would hand out saying "Chocolates americanos!" as kids swarmed around him.


My dad with an older-generation Cuban, they shared many stories. My father was amazed at how the revolution had wiped out the collective memory of those who were there. No one had any idea of what the country was like pre-revolution, what the buildings had been used for, etc. They were incredibly curious to know.


My mother worked for a while in Havana. Back then it was a 7 hour drive from Cienfuegos to the capital so she and my uncle, who was working at the US Embassy, would live in Havana during the week and drive home for the weekends. The building my mother stayed in (a ladies' boarding house) was still there and being used as apartments, though very run down. Luckily, the gorgeous stained glass on the staircase was still intact:


This is one of the most beautiful buildings in La Habana, the Teatro de La Habana. The photo really does not do it justice.


Sorry the quality of the photos is so poor, I have less than half of what we took here. There is a wonderful one of my dad dancing salsa in the streets of Havana outside a cafe where they were playing live music. I think of all the things he missed, good Cuban music was the one he missed the most, he loves dancing, and Puerto Rican dance music doesn't even come close to the elegance and style of Cuban music.

the Revolution happened in 1959. My parents, who were still dating at the time, stayed but saw how things got progressively worse. When the government announced it was taking over the button factory (which was being run by my grandmother, my uncle and my father, as my grandfather died when my father was still a teenager) both families decided it was time to leave. My mother's side of the family smuggled a number of their posessions via my mother's older brother who was working at the US Embassy (you could leave the island but were only allowed to take one suitcase with you). After much waiting and government postponing they finally got their exit visas in 1960. My parents were married in Miami in November of that year.

Shiro, in reply to your question, I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. My parents moved down there in 1969 after having lived in Chicago, Massachussetts and New Hampshire.

What a great post, Elena. Thanks for sharing these.

Beautiful. Hope to visit one day.

Those are great photos, Elena. Thanks for sharing pics and stories of your family!

My wife's father was Cuban, and I got to know his cousin, who lived in Manhattan for many years. Her son, now retired, was in the banking business and had dealings with banks in Spanish-speaking countries.

Gosh....

Thank you for sharing your heritage with us Elena. I really don't know much about Cuba and had not seen much of the city nor the country there.

Teatro de La Habana is a beauty. Very regal. The fretwork on the hotel I liked and am drooling over the leaded/stained glass window (another love I have).

Your mom's home is tres elegante.

The tile, cobblestone streets, and even the cobble street is so romantic. And those huge doors and windows. Wow!

Your father sounds so nice. Candy for the kiddies, and dancing! My kind a fellow!

I hope that you will be able to get the pics on your parents computer, and share more.

Question...
After living in a few places on the mainland, how did they happen to take up residence in PR?

ask your dad to email you the pics from their computer and add to the thread.

thanks so much for these. your background is so interesting. how awful for your family, especially your father's side, to be refugees, and in his case, twice!

if the castro government ended tomorrow, do you think they would move back?

Beautiful pictures... Let's hope that things open up in the next few years.

Thank you for sharing a bit of your history with us! Very interesting, and the photos are wonderful to see!

(I thought you were born in PR, but I didn't want to say, in case I was wrong!)

I am going to email my mother and ask her about her trip etc.

Totally enthralling - one of the best posts I've read in months. Thanks.

Fascinating - and quite beautiful! I've heard about the time-warp cars but have never seen pictures of them. Love the architecture, love the stories about your family.

Thanks!

Gorgeous pictures! What a treat to see them!

Great photo essay and comments! Thank you so much!

quote:

Question...
After living in a few places on the mainland, how did they happen to take up residence in PR?

By the time my father left Cuba buttons had gone from seashells to plastic and his specialty was plastics molding. Whilst in MA, my father got a job offer with Nypro in Puerto Rico.

Back when they moved there, in 69, PR was an underdeveloped paradise and the closest thing they could ever expect to find to what life had been like in Cuba. Great weather year round, latin culture, proximity to the beach, safe communities. In fact, if anything, Puerto Rico was on the upswing back then: Pablo Casals, who lived in exile in PR until he died, had founded the PR Symphony and Conservatory of Music a short time before, a ton of US money was pouring in and some kind of infrastructure was being created, there was a new class of well-educated Puerto Ricans who were starving for foreign culture and they were bringing much of it home.

They have loved living there ever since, despite the ever-increasing crime rate, government corruption and ridiculous nationalism which began in the 90ies.

I was born in Tampa, Elena, and Ybor City looks a lot like your pictures. A lot of brick buildings, balconies, cobblestone streets, and courtyards. Like Steve said though, what I notice are the cars.

quote:

thanks so much for these. your background is so interesting. how awful for your family, especially your father's side, to be refugees, and in his case, twice!

if the castro government ended tomorrow, do you think they would move back?

Actually, my grandfather left Germany before Hitler ever rose to power, in the 19teens. He gave up his German Citizenship and became a US citizen I think before the 20ies, hence the reason I can't acquire a German citizenship, though I would love to have one. So my family has only been a refugee once.

My parents don't plan on ever leaving PR. They have spent 40 years on the island and are happy living there.

The loss of Cuba was the end of their "childhood". My mother was 20 and my father 26.

I think it affected my mother more than my father because she lived the life of a princess, without a care in the world. However there was not much culture shock for her as, at 16, she spent two years at a school in Denver called Loretto Heights College so she had had experience living in the US, she had also always associated with the Americans in Havana (that is how she met my father). The 2 years of college for my mother was my grandfather's idea, they were trying to end a romance she was having with a man 15 years her senior. It worked. However, my grandfather brought her home after two years because, he said "No man will want to marry you if you are smarter than they are."

I should mention that Cuba is the wonderful place to visit it is now because all the pompous upperclass @holes that ran the country and owned most of it left. Spend any time in Miami with Cuban exiles from the first wave of immigrants and you will know what I mean. They think the world owes them everything.

After visiting Cuba you realize that the Revolution HAD to happen. The level of wealth held by a *very few* was obscene. There was virtually no middle class and the upper classes considered people in the lower classes to be in their rightful place, being there merely to provide food and comfort to the wealthy.

As poor as the country is, they are overall well-educated, kind, generous, their basic healthcare is excellent though they lack medicines and the most up-to-date technology. Though a friend of my mother's who stayed and was an ophtalmologist even offered Mr. EHpianist free laser surgery to correct his eyes (he didn't take him up on the offer).

They help eachother out because they all have it bad. There is a sense of shared misfortunes and that they have already survived the worst.

Many mentioned that if the exiles ever tried to take their properties back there would be another civil war. They feel they have suffered most by staying and that the exiles already have their nice american homes with 2 cars, HDTVs, washing machines and comforts of the free world, why should they come and take away what little the ones who stayed have?