Both of our parents lived in the city of Guanabacoa (link in English), in the province of Havana, Cuba.  There they met, got married and had two of their three children.  José and Eladio were both born in Guanabacoa (link in Spanish), but our sister, Carmen, was born in Luyanó, in the city of La Habana.  Our mother has always been a housewife and our father was a physician and was not allowed to leave the island of Cuba because of his profession and the position he held in the Castro government.  For this reason he had to sneak out of Cuba in a boat.  After jumping off a cliff, swimming for about a mile to a row boat and then rowing for about another mile to a larger motor boat, they set out North, to Key West and the United States.  Unfortunately, a freak storm pushed them further out to sea and broke the boat's propeller so that they were forced to continue their journey by sail.  Eventually they arrived at Marathon Beach, FL., not their original destination, but good enough!  We had been waiting for dad for a year. 

           During this year, my mother had taken up the reigns of the family and had insisted that all three of us remain in school.  First, we stayed with friends and later, when the welcome grew thin, we moved to our own apartment, where we had to hide my sister, Carmen, because they would only allow two children per unit.  Once my sister was discovered, we had to move again to a run down house, infested with vermin.  One attraction, however, was that there were other Cubans in the apartments around ours and we were able to speak Spanish and be among people with a common culture.  There, we prayed and waited, hoping that my dad would soon rejoin us.  We were helped by one family in particular, the Patron's.  They had been friends of our family in Cuba and were able to send us $50.00 a week, which really helped supplement the money and food we received from the Cuban Refugee Relief Fund.  Since we had no money and no transportation, we had to walk a few miles to the food distribution center in order to get our food rations; often times in the rain.  I remember wanting to quit school and take on a job to help out the family and I also remember my mother insisting that I should finish school before I did anything else.  Life was not easy those first few years in the States. 

           I was taking a shower when my father arrived at our house in Hialeah.  At first I was incredulous that he was really home and thought that it was a joke perpetrated by our fellow Cuban refugee friends.  When I got out of the shower and saw my dad, we embraced and cried in each others arms.   My mother, along with my brother Eladio and my sister Carmen, were at the Orange Bowl, where a mass was being said by the Archbishop of Miami in memory of Cuba's patron saint, Our Lady of Charity.  Needless to say, once they arrived, they were also overtaken by emotion and many tears were shed. 

         After about another year in Miami, Florida, my father was offered a job in Charleston, West Virginia and another in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We chose to move North to Charleston because we had never seen snow and were interested in the American culture and the English language.  In Charleston dad finished his medical internship and residency.  From Charleston, we moved to St. Marys, WV, where my father was hired as a physician with the Colin Anderson Center, a school for mentally retarded children.  Eventually, he rose to the positions of Medical Director and Superintendent of the facility.  When the only other doctor in St. Marys, WV, died suddenly in a car accident, my father was approached by the community elders who requested him to take over the practice.  Fortunately, after many attempts, he succeeded in passing the ECFMG, a grueling  examination required of all medical foreign graduate doctors. He then bought the unfortunate doctor's practice from his family and  established his own medical practice, where he stayed for a long time, Later retiring to Miami Lakes, FL, were he, unfortunately passed away. 

           All three children, José, Eladio and Carmen, graduated from High School in St. Marys, WV, and all three also attended and graduated from the University of West Virginia in Morgantown, WV.