This photo is of my great-great grandparents “Manengo” and “Abuelita Maria”. They lived in
Cuba and I am honored to have been passed down the only photo of them we know of. When I
look at it, I think of when my grandparents escaped Cuba in 1970 to the United States, and the
family they had to sadly leave behind. They had to fight the revolution in Cuba against Fidel
Castro, and Castro ended up putting my grandfather in prison for a few months. My
grandmother stayed home with her two sons (which are my father’s two older brothers), and she
created a plan to move to the United States. My grandfather finally got out of prison with the
help of an actor that was popular in Camagüey at the time that was his friend, and luckily he
was an actor liked by Castro. My grandfather walked out of the prison in the early morning hours
with his belongings. My
grandparents were told that were able to get out if they did a month of work on a farm. They
completed this work, and when they were about to board a plane to the United States, someone
came up to them and said that they couldn’t get on. My grandparents panicked, and my
grandmother called her aunt who already lived in the United States. Her aunt said “hold on”, and
called a woman in charge who happened to be a friend of hers, and they were let on to the
plane thanks to her aunt. There were so many factors that could have went wrong, but it felt like
that it was meant to happen that they were able to escape and come to the United States. Her aunt is still alive at 109 years old.

– AP

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant