1962.
Ten years old and a spoiled middle class Cuban princess, the only
female of seven cousins. Sent to a Hialeah, Floridal home of a family
who had just arrived and had their own set of problems.
My
brother had already been thru Matacunbe Camp and sent to an orphanage
in Saginaw, Michigan. I was extremely unhappy in Hialeah and was almost
sent back to Cuba if not for the wisdom of my 12-year-old brother
who talked the nuns into bringing me up to the Michigan orphanage.
Spent three good years at St. Vincent's Home for Children. The years
flew by and I was reunited with my parents Christmas Eve 1964, Los
Angeles International Airport (you can guess what that reunion has
done for Christmas for the next 40 years).
North
Hollywood, California in the 60s and 70s, a good life, getting all
50 family members out of Cuba, and creating a tight family unit. Married
a nice Cuban man and moved to Miami with my own two Cuban American
princesses in 1979. They where raised more Cuban than the palms that
line Westchester neighborhoods. And the years flew, the Cuban American
princesses now hold college degrees, and do very well here in exile.
I am now a grandmother to a child who wears T-shirts that say “Cubanito”
and “Made in the USA with Cuban Parts.”
My
grandparents died waiting for a free Cuba, so did my dad. My mom continues
to wait, and I have resigned myself to the local catholic cemetery.
No, I have not gone back to Cuba, I believe that the island is not
large enough to hold Fidel Castro and me.
Mercy Cañete-Velar
Miami, FL
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COMMENTS...
Three
generations in the US and you are still calling yourself "Cubanito?"
And you brag that you raised your daughters to be "more Cuban"
than real Cubans. Sorry but you are the exact type of person we
do not want in this country. My ancestors were proud to be American
and give up their loyalty to any other country but this one.
Mary
East Bay, California
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I
dont think there is anything wrong with being proud of your heritage
and being a "Cubanito". There is no written rule that
says you can only be American and nothing else...I think that's
what's wrong with America, that one sided view. We've gotta accept
all cultures, and acknowledge that people are proud of their individual
cultures too.
Maya
Washington
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