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Born in Cuba: A Personal Story

As young teens often do, I spent every possible second with my best friend, Alex.  Alex and I played on the basketball team, soccer team and track team together.   Alex is one half Cuban and her mother, Lilian, was born in Cuba and lived there until she was fifteen years old.  In the summer, we would sit by Alex’s pool and talk with her mother for hours.  We would ask her mother to tell us all about her experiences in Cuba and immigrating to the United States.  It didn’t matter how many times she told these stories, we never grew tired of them.  I would like to share her story with you.  The following story is an account of Lilian Gulacy’s experiences.

Lilian P. Gulacy was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1958, the year Fidel Castro took over.  She was born to a middle class family.  She lived in the largest house on her block.  Her family was the only family in the neighborhood that had a working phone.  Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was a soldier in the Cuban army. Many people were in and out of the house because it was the only one with a working phone, plus everyone who lived on the surrounding blocks basically knew everyone else and whose kids belonged to whom.  There was always food on the table and kids to play with her sister and her.  It was like the small towns your grandma or grandpa tells you about where no one was a stranger.  Lillian and her older sister, Tia, remember this neighborhood warmly and both report having a wonderful childhood with many friends and a loving family.  

Still, as she grew older, things were not always good.  Lil reports that there was very rarely butter to be found in the stores and when her mother, Pilar, or her father, Carlos, managed to get a hold of it, it was truly a treat.  Sometimes to get something as simple as bread required waiting in long lines for hours.  She remembers that her freedom was nothing like it is today.   As a Cuban child, she knew never to speak a word out against the government where others could hear, because of “worms.”  Worms were people who would use someone’s speaking out as a chance to point fingers and gain favors.  Also at this time, homosexuality was not allowed.  If you were gay, you could be killed for it. Lillian’s mother worked with a teacher who was gay but he married a woman to cover up his homosexuality in order to avoid imprisonment and death by the government.  She told us that many homosexuals married in that way to protect themselves.  Out of all the aspects of communist Cuba, the most frightening of all was that Lil never knew what was going to happen to her and her family.  In fact, no one in the entire country could ever be sure of his or her safety.  People would sometimes disappear (which is a nice way of saying the were kid napped and killed) or be taken by soldiers.  These people were offered no explanation.  Although Lilian had a childhood that was mostly happy, she did not escape the censorship,  suspicion, and sudden arrests which colored life in Cuba.

When Lil was fifteen, the government took all of the teenaged girls in the area, including her.  Big covered army trucks were brought into the city and Lil and her sister and her friends were loaded up in them.  The girls were driven several hours out into the country until they arrived at a camp.  There were barracks set up and it was here that the girls were informed of their fate.  The fields surrounding the barracks were potato fields and the girls were to dig the potatoes out of the ground.  After the first month, they were allowed to write letters to their parents and correspond with their families through the mail.  Mrs. Gulacy said that she weighed 125 pounds when she was taken and after five months of laboring she weighed 68 pounds.  The thing that she remembers the most though, was that on the last day before the girls got to go home, they were fed Spam instead of the usual potato paste.  Lillian still loves Spam to this day.

The potato plantations were bad, but the scariest time in Lillian’s life was when soldiers with machine guns kicked down her front door and took her father.  At this time in Cuba, you had to apply for emigration and then if your emigration request was passed, you had to wait seven years before you actually get to leave.  You only got one chance to go.  If your flight was canceled on your day of departure, then you had to stay in Cuba.  Mrs. Gulacy’s family was due to leave in three months when her father, Carlos was taken.  They did know if he was going to be killed or tortured.  They did not even know why the soldiers took him.  To make matters worse, he had asthma and they doubted he would be given medicine for it.  After eight weeks with out word from her father, they feared the worst.  He might be dead or they would have to leave the country without him.  Days turned to weeks and still no word.  Lil and her mother and sister prayed every night for him.  It was three days before their flight when Lil’s dad walked through the front door.  By some miracle, he was alive and back in time for the flight.  Mrs. Gulacy still does not know how or why her father was released.  She says that she asked him but he never told her.  He is deceased now and Lillian doubts that she will ever know how her dad ended up in the front door that day.

After leaving Cuba, Lil’s family moved to Spain where they lived for a year until they moved to the United States.  Lillian enjoyed her childhood and it was filled with memories, most good and some scary.  All in all, Mrs. Gulacy says that she would not trade her experiences for anything.  She also says that the thing she likes the most about America is that when you run out of butter you can go to the store and buy more at any time of the day or year. 

For thoughts related to Lilian Gulacy's experience see Reflections

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