Hi and welcome back to Tell Me What Happened,
the podcast that features real people talking
about real issues that they confronted in their
childhoods. I'm your host, Jay Reheck, and like
you, I've suffered some trauma in my childhood,
but I'd like to think that everything that I
experienced has helped to make me who I am today,
and hopefully a little bit more empathetic than
I otherwise would be. Tell Me What Happened is
sponsored by Sideline Ink Publishing. publishers
of quality books including Susan Salador's I've
Got Peace in My Fingers available worldwide or
wherever quality books are sold. Today I have
as my guest a good friend of mine, a man who
emigrated from Cuba at a very young age, my good
friend Orlando Piedra. Orlando, go ahead and
tell us your story. The story starts in Cuba.
I was born in Cuba. I came to the United States
in 1961. Things were different at that time landing
in Miami than they are right now. My goodness,
that was so long ago, almost 60 years ago. However,
I came here when I was 10 years old. We landed
in Miami in January of 1961. Fidel Castro came
up to power on January the 1st, 1959. To a nine
-year -old, ten -year -old, it wasn't a big deal
until my parents came to me and said, take some
things, take some clothes and put them in a bag
so that we can go on this trip together. I had
no idea. I was living comfortably, playing, doing
the normal things that a ten -year -old would
do. And all of the sudden, we are at an airport
and we are taking an airplane to Miami. I didn't
know how long we were going to stay there. We
ended up staying forever. We left everything
that I had known to be part of my world behind
the house that we lived in, the school that I
went to, the things that I had, the toys that
I had. My father's automobile was a 1963 or 1962
Mercedes petroleum. It was one of the first there.
However, they took it away from him. He got He,
my dad, got arrested because he happens to have,
or he happened to have had, the same first and
last name, not the middle name, first and last
name, of a well -known enforcer for the Batista
regime, who was the regime that Castro was fighting
against. And bodies would literally turn up in
the streets of the city, dropped off at night.
clandestinely and someone his name was Orlando
Rafael Piedra Negeruela someone with my dad's
first and second name was the person that was
doing a lot of this killing in any event my dad
got pinched he got arrested he figured this is
going on we just he decided to leave Because
he didn't see any future in having the same last
name as someone that is well known for having
killed people in the Castro regime. If you see
what I mean. My mom, my mom was a school principal.
She wasn't allowed to go out of the country after
Castro came up. He came up in 59. And two years
later, they weren't giving papers out to people
that were as educated as my mom was, even though
she didn't speak English. But she, I guess that's
why I went into the business. Going back to my
dad, once they took that car, once they took
that, he knew we had people at the house that
were strangers to me. And then in time, I found
out that... the guys with the gray suits and
the skinny lapel and the skinny black ties carrying
guns that were coming into the house. They were
just there to talk to my parents. But then I
found out what they were there for, scoping out
my dad. So my parents decided to leave. They
told me to pack some things. We end up in Hialeah,
Florida for about a month. My dad's not making
any money, but we come to Chicago pretty cold
60 62 was cold and my dad gets a job Doing something
with cars, I don't know but he used to come home
filthy. He was a businessman He wore suits and
now he's coming home with this stuff in his face
So after about a month of this trauma in in Hialeah,
Florida the most inhabited Cuban population now
in the United States, we had an opportunity to
come to Chicago. To make a long story short,
finally, we ended up in Chicago in 1962, off
of the airplane, cold weather. My mom and dad
did not speak English. I had to translate for
everything we did. After we were able to stay
with this family for a couple of weeks, we had
to rent a house, not rent a house, but an apartment
at the time. And I had to do the leasing, translating,
and the grocery. It was part of the new thing
because when I was back in Cuba, my parents didn't
need me for that kind of thing. They were doing
their careers, but now the dynamics of the family
really change. I guess it was to my benefit because
we became dependent on one another. My mom, working
in a school, handling four or five hundred kids,
whatever it was at the time, and now she's here
not being able to speak English and went to work
at a watch factory, a Seiko watch factory. I
remember she was able to get me some nice Christmas
presents once she was working there. She worked
her entire life, her life here. while she was
in Chicago. Anyway, my dad. My dad had the same
last name as this killer for the Batista regime.
My dad was arrested a couple of times. We had
people in the house that were, I guess, police
at the time. I didn't know who they were. Eleven
years old, I didn't know who in the world they
were. Coming into the house, my parents, oh,
they're just here to talk to your dad, this and
that. Guess my dad didn't see any future staying
in Cuba. So we left thinking eventually when
Castro is Dethrone We'll be able to go back with
that. Hope has been like almost 60 years I wish
I could go back but things in our in our current
political theme have changed in any event What
else can I tell you about this story The thing
that this story has taught me is that as an 11
year old I Felt like I had everything that I
would ever need I had no cares similar to my
son who has Autism no care at all for anything
No idea what was happening around me all of a
sudden pack a bag month later You're in Chicago,
and it doesn't look like you're going back so
my parents always taught me that Education was
the way out. I shared this with my daughter.
I wish I could with my son, but he doesn't understand.
He will not understand that because of his developmental
disability. But the one thing that we had was
comfort in Cuba. We had money. We had a nice
house, not a small house, not an estate. but
a very comfortable life with people caring for
us and I went to a private place with where you
have to wear your little tie and and I would
stay at the school for nine months out of the
year come home for the holidays my parents had
to pay for that I guess now one way or another
at the time but what I learned is that all that
stuff in from one day to the other was gone we
were living in a place that had Roaches, which
is a new bug that I was introduced to. We don't
have those kinds of things in Cuba. Other kinds
of bugs, but not those. Without money, without
clothing, without family, we were here. And the
one thing they taught me is that the only way
you can get through, luckily I spoke English,
the only way you can get through was if you...
get educated. And it wasn't easy for me. We didn't
have Google in 1962. We didn't have Google in
1972 or 76 when I finally graduated from college.
I was able to make it because they put into their
minds, into my mind, that the school, the education
was a thing that was going to pull me out and
think that they could not take away. So, to make
a long story short, what I've learned is that
young person and I carry and I try to teach my
daughter the same is that material things like
money homes clothing material things can be taken
away from you easily from one day to the next
but what they cannot take away from you is your
education what you learned in school what you
learned in life what something I learned from
a band, a rock band by the name of Pink Floyd.
But they have a line on an album that's called
Dark Side of the Moon. I think it's still the
top bestseller in the world. But the line reads,
all that you touch and all that you see is all
your life will ever be. And I am very, very grateful
to have been able to follow that thinking and
that philosophy. Well, thank you Orlando for
those insights. I can't imagine how difficult
it must be to emigrate to another country, especially
as a young person. Well, that's our show. I want
to thank everyone for listening, and I also want
to invite anyone who'd like to participate to
text me at 312 -343 -6273 and tell me their story.
Because we all have them, we've all endured them,
and we can all learn from them. Now we're going
to end the show as we always do, with Susan Salador's
classic Boo Boo Blues. I'm Jay Rehack. And until
next time, as always, stay safe out there and
try not to hurt anybody. fix it for