A Time To Look Back

Growing up during the Cuban revolution

Anthony Timiraos

• Publisher: Anthony Timiraos Photography
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9780578980041
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

The current international media coverage of immigrants risking their lives to emigrate to a free country makes my personal story meaningful, educational, and relevant.A cruise to Cuba during the Christmas holidays of 2018 brought me back to my childhood when my family was being forced to adapt to a communist revolution.Then came the disappointment of a failed citizens revolt that attempted to return the country to a democracy, the subsequent raid by armed soldiers of my family's home and the eventual arrest of my father without cause.These were only a few of the events that forced my family to plan our exodus to the United States.

At the age of 8, I was sent to the U.S. alone with my brother under a program coordinated by the Catholic Charites and the U.S. State Department. Operation Pedro Pan is the largest mass exodus of children in the Western Hemisphere. We were welcomed to a new homeland by a network of generous religious organizations, corporations, private citizens, and a country that had empathy for families seeking asylum from restricted and dangerous societies. I had to live in numerous locations including a regretful stay in an orphanage for troubled young boys from broken families who could not be placed in foster homes.While I was still separated from my family, I experienced the horrors of a close encounter with nuclear war.

My book combines my experience in Cuba during the cruise, my recollections as a child, and how political events and decisions made by the Cuban, U.S. and Soviet Union governments during that time changed the course of history and affected my family directly.I wrote this book because history is important and should have a significant place in our education system.Without it, we have no platform from which to leap ahead. I wrote this book because new generations should have access to roads others have paved in the past that perhaps have made life just a bit better for everyone.I wrote this book in hopes that readers take what they can, continue to build their own path and distance themselves from mistakes of the past.

PART ONE

“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risk and costs of comfortable inaction.”

- JOHN F. KENNEDY

CHAPTER 1

Happy New Year
1959

In the early morning hours of January 1, 1959, Cuba’s dictator, Fulgencio Batista, decided quickly and hastily to gather a group of family and loyal friends for an elegant but brief New Year’s Eve celebration at Camp Columbia, a military station outside of La Habana in the Marianao neighborhood.

But, instead of pouring champagne, Batista and his cohorts boarded a plane and fled Cuba for political asylum in the Dominican Republic. A second plane left La Habana later that night carrying ministers, officers, and the governor of La Habana.

A crook, murderer, and thief, Batista didn’t just bring his friends along for his escape. He also took more than $300 million amassed through graft and payoffs as well as fine art worth a substantial fortune.

Batista had previously been elected President of Cuba in 1940 for a four-year term. After he lost re-election, he moved to Florida, but later returned to Cuba to run for president again in 1952. It began to look like that effort was doomed. So, what does a politician who is a crook, murderer, and thief do when he faces imminent defeat? He preempts the election by organizing a successful military coup against the current president! From 1952 to that early morning of January 1, 1959, Batista was the U.S.-backed military dictator of the island.

He lost his political popularity with the Cuban people because of his corruption, payoffs, suspension of constitutional rights, and attempts to frighten the people through open displays of brutality against his political enemies. His army, though substantial, was undermined by a popular movement led by the young charismatic Fidel Castro that started to brew in Cuba’s eastern mountain range, moving westward across the island to La Habana.

There was chaos inside Batista’s administration. Many of his generals and other military personnel were beginning to defect and join the new revolution. As Castro’s army kept moving closer and closer to La Habana, Batista had no choice but to orchestrate his last-minute dramatic exit from the island with as many valuable possessions as he could take on the plane.

*************

A few hours earlier, in my home in the Santo Suarez neighborhood of La Habana, less than 5 miles east of Camp Columbia, I was getting ready to go to bed. It was New Year’s Eve 1958, and my parents, Segundo and Rosa, were leaving to attend a formal party with several friends at the well-known Rancho Luna Restaurant in the Wajay neighborhood. It was less than 10 miles south of Camp Columbia where Batista was scheduled to have his own private party.

Both of my parents were dressed in formal attire as if they were going to attend the Academy Awards. They kissed their three young boys, Segundito (8), Jorge (3), and me, Antonio (5), goodnight for the third time. As most mothers do, Rosa verbally repeated her written list of instructions to the sitter who was hired to watch us that night until they returned home sometime after midnight.

We were not allowed to stay up late. But that night, after midnight, I was awakened by loud noises out in the street, glass breaking, people running, and screaming. I couldn’t tell if the people were celebrating or demonstrating. There was chaos outside and I did not want to get out of bed to look out the window, if there were any problems, I felt the sitter would protect us. Soon after the noise quieted down, my parents returned home. I could overhear them tell the sitter that they left their swanky party earlier than expected because of the street demonstrations and concerns that the protesters would invade the restaurant while the patrons were inside enjoying the New Year’s celebration.

On their way home, they witnessed groups rioting on the main streets, shooting randomly at government buildings and other properties known to be occupied by loyal supporters of Batista. People were celebrating his rumored departure from Cuba, and the eventual control of the country by Fidel Castro. My parents were afraid for their lives but managed to circumvent the obstacles to arrive home safely.

The political unrest continued for about a week into the New Year. We were not allowed to go to school or to play outside during that time for fear of the demonstrators’ violence. All day long during this unsettling time, we were forced to keep the doors and windows facing the street closed, draw the curtains, and keep minimal lights on at night. We could hear the constant roar of military vehicles traveling at a high rate of speed outside of our home and occasional gun shots. My father still went to work every day but was careful about which route he would take to avoid the protesters and the remains of Batista’s army which, by this time, began to shift their allegiance to Fidel Castro.

On January 7, 1959, a week after Batista fled the country, Castro and his army of guerrilla fighters entered the city of La Habana in a triumphant parade just like Julius Caesar had done in Egypt. But this time there was no Cleopatra, elephants, camels, or lions. Just a bunch of bearded men lacking soap, water, and basic personal hygiene in military trucks.

This is when my life began to change. I felt that I had begun my adult years at the age of 5.

*************

I was raised by very conservative Cuban parents who were madly in love. My father, Segundo, was an accountant/office manager for Jose Arechabala, a large company with headquarters in the La Habana Vieja neighborhood across from the Catedral Colon (Cathedral of San Cristóbal de la Habana). My mother, Rosa, was a housewife who raised my brothers and me.

Our house was a simple classic Spanish-style home. Our neighborhood was home to many middle-class families and a short 10-minute ride to the downtown and La Habana Vieja neighborhoods.

Life for me as a child during the 1950s was safe and predictable. A real-life Cuban “Leave It to Beaver,” I spent weekdays in school and late afternoons playing with neighborhood kids at a local playground. Later in the evening, it was homework followed by dinner with the entire family. My father would arrive from work and after some social interaction with the neighborhood adults on the front porch, the five of us would go inside and sit together for dinner.

My brother Segundito always felt he had to play the conservative, serious role and do everything in his power to protect his younger brothers. At the same time, he had a bit of a devilish prankster personality and liked to use it to tease us and friends in the neighborhood. Jorge was the youngest with more energy inside his small body than Segundito and I had combined. He needed to be watched 24 hours a day. My mother would always say to us, “Cuida a Jorge, el es muy joven y chiquito.” (Take care of Jorge, he is too young and small.) That left us with a lot of guilt if we did not watch him all the time.

The dinner conversations at home varied. My finicky brothers and I would always complain about something on our dinner plate even though my mother was an excellent cook. Her common response was, “No puedes moverte de esa silla hasta que tu plato esté vacío.” (You can’t move from that chair until your plate is empty.) Today, I realize that she was no different than most mothers trying to raise three boys.

My parents were very discreet at the table with their adult conversations, especially when they talked politics in front of us. I did practice the study of eavesdropping during their dinner talks which was mostly in what I call, “Cuban Code,” because they assumed we would not understand. That’s when I began to develop a political opinion at my tender age based on my parents coded comments.

Sundays included mornings at church and afternoon lunches at one of my two grandmothers’ houses. Abuela Balbina was my father’s widowed mother. She was frail with very thick and wavy shoulder-length hair that was pure snow-white. She always dressed in a three-quarter-length black dress with beige nylons that were pulled up just below her knees and would many times roll down to her ankles. The pair of slippers always on her feet seemed to be at least 200 years old.

Living in the same house with Abuela Balbina was her older sister, Esperansa, who was never married and always dressed like Abuela Balbina. Esperansa suffered from a tooth ailment as a teenager that left her jaw and the lower part of her face deformed. Her mental state was questionable when I knew her, so we were always afraid to go near her because she wanted to kiss us all the time. “Mira, mira, mira. Besitos para todos.” (Look, look, look. Kisses for everyone.)

Abuela Balbina had three children. My father was the oldest followed by her only daughter, Tia Nena, who also lived in the same household. She was born only 13 months after my father. Tio Orlando was the youngest of the three and lived near us with his wife and two daughters.

Tia Nena was single at that time, a socialite who was well known in elite circles of La Habana. She was very attractive, always wearing heavy makeup and the latest Cuban fashions. Her bold perfume, bright red lipstick, red fingernails and toenails combined in a distinct style and attitude to match was her trademark. Later in life, she told us about many of her boyfriends and how she kept them a secret from her mother and my father. Abuela Balbina, Esperansa and Tia Nena lived in a beautiful old Spanish-style townhouse on Calle Amargura in the center of the La Habana Vieja neighborhood.

Abuela Teresa, my mother’s mother, had five children. Tia Vivina was the youngest, preceded by Tio Alberto, Tio Yayo, my mother Rosa, and Tia Maria Luisa, the eldest. Abuela Teresa was also a widow and lived with her sister a few minutes from our home. She seemed to be younger to me and had more energy than Abuela Balbina.

Abuela Teresa’s clothing style and physical looks were not as dark, gloomy, and “scary widow looking.” She was more into traditional greys, neutrals, and softer colors. She always slapped too much talcum powder all over her body. Her sister dressed the same, except that she was much quieter and did most of the cooking on Sundays. That is why her dresses always had food stains. Abuela Teresa liked to take the credit for the excellent food, but everyone knew who the real cook in that household was. They both lived in a simple ground-level apartment with a large patio facing the front sidewalk.

So, every Sunday, it was either Balbina or Teresa’s home for lunch after church. At each home, other aunts and uncles would join us and, depending on which abuela we visited, the subject of politics became either heated or agreeable based on who was present that day. It was fun as a child to see your relatives argue quite strongly at times about something I thought back then to be unimportant. These useless political issues seemed to me like a waste of time and energy. Who cares?

*************

We were the typical, middle-class Cuban family living in La Habana. But on that New Year’s Eve of 1958, I started to realize there was more going on outside my comfortable reality. Military vehicles racing past the front door was not something anyone would see on “Father Knows Best” or “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Things were happening outside of our control that would change our lives and the lives of thousands of Cubans forever.

CHAPTER 2

Welcome to La Habana
2018

I was awakened by my own internal clock with an alarm that seemed to know the precise time we would be approaching the port. My eyes opened at exactly 5:00 a.m. on December 20, 2018, almost 60 years to the day after that famous New Year’s Eve celebration in 1958 that took place not far from where I was now.

I leapt out of bed, opened the sliding glass doors of our suite, and stepped out onto our cabin’s verandah. Out on the dark horizon, I saw that famous castle, the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, known to us when we were kids as “El Morro”, with some spotlights on the stone walls protecting the entrance to the port.

I woke up my husband Arthur who was sharing this trip with me, dressed quickly, and grabbed my camera as we raced upstairs to the sun deck to experience our entrance into the harbor. A place I had not seen for almost 56 years. The harbor of a city I used to call home.

My heart was beating louder than a drum line at a college football game. I could not determine if the rapid beating was due to the excitement and anticipation of what was to come over the next several hours or perhaps the three flights of stairs we just ran. I hoped it was the excitement and anticipation and not a sign of an upcoming heart attack.

The ship slowly sailed into the harbor as I jumped back and forth from the port side to the starboard side several times because I couldn’t determine which side of the ship had the best views to capture on camera. As we got closer to the port entrance and docks, our long-time friends and travel-mates Stephen and Allen arrived on the deck. There, we saw the dome of El Capitolio in the distance, a public edifice similar in design to the U.S. Capitol building and one of the most visited sites in Havana commissioned by a former Cuban president and built during the mid 1920’s.

Both Stephen and Allen are avid world travelers who we have known for more than 15 years. This was their first time in Cuba, and it was at their suggestion that Arthur and I found ourselves on this cruise with them, circling the island during the Christmas holidays in 2018.

I initially hesitated about returning to Cuba more than a half century after leaving. But after some discussions with Arthur, we both thought it would be a great opportunity for me to return to my roots and for Arthur to finally see my country of birth. Earlier that year, Arthur and I celebrated our 48^th anniversary together, so he was awfully familiar with my childhood stories of Cuba. He knew my family well and was just as anxious as I was to visit.

The docks and warehouses at the port were now in full view as the ship turned. Most of what we saw was in dilapidated condition. Just on the right was a beautiful church with a stone façade that was very dark, almost black, most likely due to years of pollution and lack of maintenance. It was the Convento de San Francisco de Asis where we occasionally attended mass with Abuela Balbina back in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

I saw cars traveling in both directions as the ship slowly prepared to dock and the crew threw ashore their light throwline with a linesman’s line attached to secure the ship to the dock. My mind immediately took me back to my youth, riding in the back seat of my father’s 1954 Buick, looking out the car window at a frenzy of activities between the freighters loading and unloading cargo, trucks pulling in and out of the port, and people crossing the streets everywhere. It was a common route to Abuela Balbina’s house in a neighborhood adjacent to the port.

As I stood on one of the top decks of the ship with my camera, I found myself overwhelmed by the darkness and unable to take any photos. The sky at dawn was indeed dark, but so was the city in a way I can’t explain. I let my mind wander back to a life before I left Cuba at the age of eight – I don’t recall the view being so dark.

My memories were bright and clear, a stark contrast to what I was experiencing. The car rides through the old neighborhoods, the strolls on the Malecon, the music on the streets, and the chatter of people socializing with their families and neighbors were coming back to me vividly as we got closer and closer to the dock.

I could see in my mind the corner grocery store where I was always sent to get leche, arroz, or a last-minute grocery item needed for dinner in the days when food and basic necessities were available without having to stand in line for hours. I could also visualize the small, privately owned shops in La Habana Vieja, especially a store I loved to visit because they sold magic toys for children.

Suddenly, I noticed a smile across my face and wondered if what I was going to witness today would be somewhat similar or substantially different. Perhaps I should prepare myself to be disappointed. Did I really believe that it would be the same as it was back in the 1950s? Was I prepared if what I experienced today was the opposite of my memories?

The excitement of getting off the ship was overwhelming, and I did not allow much time to consider the “what-if” scenarios of potential disappointment or whether I would even be allowed to enter the country. In a couple of hours, I hoped to be out on the streets following the footsteps I took many years ago.

The ship was departing at 5:00 p.m. the same day we arrived, so our day had to be efficient with an early start if we wanted to visit all the key locations I planned. We met for breakfast at the buffet stations. It was a rather quick breakfast for all of us as my anxiety of getting out onto the streets of La Habana became contagious.

We quickly returned to our cabin to grab my camera and an envelope containing copies of street maps and specific addresses to find. Then we took a brisk walk to the ship’s exit and down the gangway to the terminal where we were required to go through a passport/visa checkpoint.

The fear of not being allowed to enter the country hit me like a lightning strike and I began to panic. Between the four of us, I was the only person originally born in Cuba, and therefore I required a special visa to enter the country. A few minutes of delays at the checkpoint seemed like hours as the young guard, who was not much older than 18, took his time looking back and forth between my documents and my face several times. All clear! I was allowed to enter the country! My husband and friends who were waiting on the other side of the transom erupted in applause – They must have sensed my fear of being denied entrance. We were now out of the terminal and on the streets of La Habana.

It took us less than five minutes to find a cab. It wasn’t just an ordinary cab you would see on the streets of any major city in the world, it was a 1959 Chevy Impala convertible. We negotiated an hourly fee with the driver, Ramon, who agreed to take us to the specific addresses I had listed, including some tourist sights. Ramon was wearing a ski jacket and knit cap because he said he felt a cold chill in the air. The temperature was in the low 70s that morning, and the skies were clear. We Floridians would consider the temperat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgment
• Dedication
• About the Author
• Operation Pedro Pan
• Prologue
• PART ONE
• PART TWO
• PART THREE
• Epilogue
• Note from the Author
• Photos