Roberto, Rosa and El Nautico

Rosa de la Vega was born on December 11, 1928. She is one of five children born to Julia Falcon and Benito Ramon de la Vega. The other siblings are Jose Ramon de la Vega, Alberto de la Vega, Maria de la Vega (twin of Rosa) and Julia de la Vega. The family was from El Vedado which is a suburb in the city of La Habana within the province of La Habana, Cuba.

Roberto Lopez del Valle Izquierdo was born on January 15, 1926, the son of Arturo Lopez Izquierdo and Maximina del Valle. He was one of 8 siblings, Arturo,Amada Ernestina, Ester, Agueda, Fausto and Eduardo. The family originated in “Marianao”.

Maximina del Valle was the daughter of a tabaquero. These were people who made the popular cigars made in Cuba. In these tabaquerias since it was boring for people to just be making cigars, and there was not radio or television, the companies would employ readers who would read everything to the tabaqueros. This would include novellas, news even academic materials. Some of them were very knowledgeable since they were always listening to such materials. Abuela Maximina always said that the reason she was named Maximina was because of a “novelita” that her father liked. The name of the novelita was “Maximina y Riverita”. I always joked that she would have been better off with Riverita. She agreed. Abuela Maximina studied to be a teacher. I do not think she ever practiced the profession, or perhaps she taught for one year and then was married.

Abuelo Arturo was a business man. I know he owned a small restaurant in la playa de Varadero. He was later involved in gambling and was one of the biggest banks in La Habana. I know he was a man who really was loved by a lot of people. When he passed away in Miami, it was the biggest funeral I have ever been to. In fact at the time it was the only funeral I had ever been to. This kind of made all the other ones seem small by comparison.
The eldest of their children was Arturo. My father, Roberto, never met him. Arturo was made to study by his family. Arturo died very young (possibly 11 or 12, perhaps even younger). He developed an acute abdominal pain and was given a “purgante” which I believe is something to induce vomiting. His appendix burst and he passed away. Abuelo Arturo became very sad and he felt particularly bad since he had made his son study so hard that he was not able to live his life. He decided not to make his children study as hard. He did not believe it was that important to study since they were wealthy anyway and would always have enough money to support themselves. All the sons joined in the family business and were not employees outside(except for my dad, which I will explain later). This was something abuela Maximina always regretted, particularly later on when we were in Miami and all of them had to take menial jobs in order to survive. Sometimes when things are tough in my own life, I marvel at how well our parents handled the changes they were going through and the fact that they did not really make us suffer for it.

I remember a lot of incidents in my childhood with abuelo and abuela. There was always a lot of political talk going on in their house. They would always talk about how Fidel nos engano a todos (apparently some were Fidel supporters and later regretted it.
Abuelo and Abuela lived in a very big house in “El Reparto Nautico” which I believe is a small neighborhood in Playa, a municipality of the Province of “La Habana”. It is located west of El Vedado and West of the City of La Habana.
They lived with Tita, one of my father’s sisters, whose real name was Agueda Lopez. The house was made of red or orange bricks. They bricks were kind of rough and would make the perfect surface to scratch your back when it itched on a hot day (actually it worked well on a cold day but it just seemed more poetic to say a hot day). As you went into their house you would see a huge table. Seemed to be a dining room table but it was huge. I sometimes saw abuelo Arturo eating there. Abuelo Arturo and Abuela Maximina loved to be with their family. All of the grandchildren would visit the house periodically. We would always sit aroung the living room which was filled with Cuban sillones. I always loved going to the house. Abuelo would make the best sandwiches, abuela the best picadillo I had ever tasted.