Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

“A vision is best taken on by the culture of a people when it is not forced,” I say to Fidel. In Spanish, they told the two young teenage sisters to take off all their clothes. The two girls refused. A standoff ensued at the Jose Marti International Airport in Cuba.The authorities said they needed to check if they were carrying ‘contraband.’  Their mother and father had looked to get them on a flight out of the country after the new, ruling leadership had ordered these girls and many others to work in the sugar cane fields under the Cuban sun. The girls were adamant in their position and refused to comply. Anything could have happened at that moment. Ultimately, the authorities relented and allowed the young girls to board the flight to American soil.  My maternal grandfather and grand uncle had a thriving law practice in La Habana. Life was good for my family but it came to an abrupt end when Fidel Castro and his band of visionary rebels forcibly took over ...

Tio Enrique, went back almost two decades ago and brought back pictures... Mami, as her grandchildren call our graceful, humble and classy artist grandmother said,  "Ay! Los mumbles son los mismos mio. No los han cambiado!" My cousin, my sister & a stowaway (lols)  Two families had been living in our family home. She left  Miramar, Cuba in the heart of La Habana in 1959 never to return. My cousin, Enrique Alfredo and my youngest sister, Giselle,  went back about a year and half ago and walked into my families former home cataloging it and bringing back a treasure trove of nostalgia for the rest of the family to see. The families living in the home were gracious enough to allow this. Everything is run down in an elegant way. The people living there there have done what they can with the means they have had.  People do what they can to get by. Enrique told me of the warped political science perspective of the taxi drivers which like the Chevro...

My maternal family left Cuba within months of Fidel taking over. They left by airplane thinking they’d be back by Christmas. They took only their bodies. One of my aunts came naked on the plane. Everything had to be left behind. The house in Miramar, the beach house in Varadero, the furniture, the clothes… everything. My youngest uncle had to stay behind as an infant because he did not have ‘the right papers.’ Papi (my late-maternal grandfather) went back for him and reunited his boy (my Godfather) with the family. America opened its arms to my maternal family back in the early 1960s. They briefly settled in Amityville, New York before relocating in Puerto Rico. While on the mainland they were given clothes, schooling and were able to move into a home at the onset of winter. Papi, a lawyer back in Cuba, worked long hours on Madison Avenue. It was rough and tough, yet better than the life that would be with Fidel in power.  On one side my family are refugees. On the...