Desde Monterrey

Desde Monterrey, México.....
esta mañana de domingo, abrir mi correo es cosa de siempre... pero esta vez encontré un nombre familiar ..pero no un nombre de la gente que suele escribirme, me dije.. mm miriam, creo que es tu primo de Miami... y aun así me quede pensando. que raro que me escriban.. y me asome a ver que era...

O grata sorpresa me lleve, si era mi primo... que recordé a la perfección.. mi primo que hablaba mucho y siempre se reía... de la edad de mis hermanos... recuerdos pocos, pues solo lo vi una semana en aquella vista a su ciudad....
en ese momento me viniero esos pocos recuerdo que tengo de ustedes.. pero también de mi papa y mi tío José ramón....me puse a leer.. así rápido por arriba, y vi fotos, y dije fotos, que bien.. entre tantas fotos, vi unos chiquillos familiares.. muy familiares.. digamos guapos... si mis tres hermanitos.... como diría mi mama los tres monos sabios... ahí me detuve un poco mas... a leer

No puedo negar y mentiria que no em emocione... y me decia, miriam.. mira se acurdan al igual que nosotros.. relamete dije eso es ser familia por mas lejos que estemos. y bueno
continué.. y me encotre una foto que en mi casa también la he visto... donde sale mi papa.. que alegría me dio verla... fue extraño ver algo que yo también había visto antes.

mi primera reacción fue escribir y escribir de nosotros aquí, pero dije es un block no se quien lo lea.. y no se si les interese saber de cada uno. y lo borre, segundo intento, volví a escribir y parecía mas carta que relato. y hasta trate de subir una foto( que no he podido) y me puse a revisar la ortografía. ( que no la tengo buena) y me dije no cambia. y decidí mandar esto..


caramba era como carta de presentación de la familia.. así que le pensé un ratito

realmete me ha dado alegria.. y ahora me dispongo a mandar fotos. creo que ellas hablan por si solas de quienes soms los De la Vega Hevia, representado en Mexico

saludos desde la ciudad de las montañas
Miriam

“Esos son comunistas. Parecen mujeres.”

In Cuba our lives were built around two goals, getting out of there and being reunited with Robert and Teresa. We always felt badly about being separated from Robert and Teresa. When we would tell people that we had not seen them in almost four years, they would say “pobrecitos”. I kept feeling bad for ourselves because we had been separated for so long. In Cuba society had come to a virtual standstill (or shift in directions). In the United States things were also changing and evolving. My father knew of the United States of years ago, not exactly the one we got to know once we got there. In Spain mom and dad tried to kind of introduce us to American Culture (Jerry Laywis, Abbot and Costello etc…) . But this was the culture of several years ago. Things were different now….
Upon our arrival one of the first big differences we experienced was in the music. Carlos and I liked to hear music and I think we had one record in Cuba. The lyrics went something like:

“Lunes antes de almorzar, ella no podia jugar, ella no podia jugar porque tenia que planchar”

and

“Un elefante se balanceaba sobre la tela de una araña. Cuando veia que ya no podia…iva a buscarse un camarada”

The first song we would actually act out as the poor kid could not play because she had so many chores. I am now more than a little bit embarrassed to say I actually enjoyed that. These were actually children’s songs. This was not surprising since we were children at the time.

There were also popular songs we liked which we heard on the radio in Cuba, for example;

“Ya los majases no tienen cueva Felipe Blanco se las tapó. Se las tapo, se las tapo, se las tapo por que lo digo yo”

“El oso papopo cuando no bailaba se sirve un placer; Ay que Buena esta la fiesta mama, ay arrimate pa ca nene.”

I think the first one had some political undertones. Felipe Blanco was an actual politician who took a strong hand to eliminate some bad guys (maja is a snake, also a bad guy). The second, is a dance tune.
Dad also taught us some classics like “Nosotros” and “Quizas, quizas, quizas”. He would love to tell us the history behind the songs, particularly “Nosotros’ by Pedro Junco:
“Nosotros, que nos queremos tanto debemos separarnos no me preguntes mas. No es falta de carino, Te quiero con el alma. Te juro que te adoro y en nombre de este amor y por tu bien te digo adios.”
This song was written by a man who was in love with this lady but he had TB and expected to die. Since TB is contagious he did not want to pass it to his beloved so he feels they must not be together. The song is of course about that. Dad loved that song. I can still hear him tell that story.
Before, everything that mom and dad said was it. We tried to learn from them. Considering there was not television and no one else older this was the thing to do. Now things were different. We were trying to learn what our two more experience siblings were trying to teach us. Everything they would say would be ingrained in our minds (at least in mine). I remember a lot of useful and useless things from that time. Part of that was in learning about the music. The famous songs at the time were “Over and Over” by the Dave Clark Five, “Downtown” by Petula Clark and “I’m Henry the Eighth I Am”, by Herman’s Hermits. We would hear those songs over and over again (sorry). Teresa or Robert had the records and Teresa showed us how it was danced to. She danced differently….. They told us that it was a different type of music, it was rock and roll. I thought she looked like she was doing calisthenics. Carlos and I tried to dance like her. I do not really know what Turi was doing at the time. At the time she really wanted to buy a 45 rpm by Petula Clark called “My Love”. It was hard to find but we found it at Jackson Byrons. They had the best record collection at the Jackson Byrons downtown. We would get dropped off by the bus in front of Burdines. We would go to Jacson Byrons to look at the records and then cut through the Seybold Building to get to Richard’s Deparment Store. Sometimes we would stop at McCrory’s to get a corn dog. We would then take the bus back (no. 18) which would pick us up between the two building that made up Burdines. There were two really popular radio stations in Miami. They were WQAM (560 Tiger Beat) and WFUN (790 Fun radio). You could get a really cheap AM radio and listen to these stations. According to Robert, the Dave Clark Five did not sing well but they had good songs. Robert told us the difference between a long playing record and a 45. It was better to buy 45’s since there were a lot of songs that we did not like in the long playing record. The first long playing record we bought was The Best of the Dave Clark Five. We bought it at Walgreens, downtown. I think it cost around $5. He had to think long and hard before he bought it. I think I can still sing all of the songs on that record. There were also “The Beatles”. Robert told us they sang very well. Their harmonies were better. I did not know their songs that well, possibly, because Teresa did not dance to them. I of course wanted to be accepted by Robert y Teresa. I wanted to like the music they liked. I thought it was “groovy” and “cool” (typical words of the time, I was catching on). This was fine and frankly they were great. They both had a lot patience. They would teach us about the latest groups etc. .. We desperately wanted to take in all this knowledge.
Mom and dad never criticized the music that Robert y Teresa liked. Tio lulo and Tia China and Abuelo and Abuela and particularly Tita really did criticize it. When I went to Abuelo and Abuela’s house I would really feel bad about liking the stuff. Every time a band would be playing on the television Abuelo and Abuela and Tiita would comment on the long hair and the way they were dressed. “Esos son comunistas. Parecen mujeres.” I would ask mom and dad why they criticized it so much and they would tell me that my grandparents came from a place where anyone who sympathized with the government would have a beard. They lost their fortunes and their way of life because of these people. Therefore any one who wore a beard was “comunista”. Their explanations always did seem very consistent. It was interesting that Robert was one of the first kids in his class to have to shave. He earned the nickname “Fidel” for this reason. I do not know how dad felt about this. He never did complain. Then again my dad never did complain. To this day friends of Robert that I meet remember him as Fidel. Mom and dad never made us feel bad about liking that music. They were always very supportive.

I do not think mom and dad wanted to complain about anything Robert and Teresa liked or did. They tried to make up for lost time with Robert and Teresa. Stereo record players had just come out. Robert explained to me what stereo was. There were two channels. In one channel the voice and guitar would be recorded. In the other channel it was the drums. The sound was a lot clearer in stereo. We did not have one however. Ours was just a regular record player. Maybe some day we would get one. Teresa and Robert talked about getting one. I always thought it was something that was not really going to happen. Almost like one day we will get one. Yeah…Right. One day, mom and dad actually got a stereo. I was really surprised. They bought it from a guy name Salome. They would always get electronics from Salome. To everyone Salome is an exotic Arab lady. To me it is an old Cuban Jewish man who sold electronics of questionable value. Soon after we got here it was Robert’s birthday. We went to Merle’s Bicycle shop in Coral way and 14 street and Dad bought Robert a bicycle. It was red and had the type of handle bars that looked like a v or u with two handles sticking out the sides. It was a really nice bike. It cost $39. Since dad was working as a dishwasher at that time for $13 a day. This was three days salary. Dad was very happy buying Robert the bike. You could tell he was really proud of himself. I asked dad why he spent so much on Robert y Teresa (he had spent a lot less on Turi’s bike, I was still walking). He seemed to get annoyed (not really upset... just annoyed. He said something like; “I haven’t seen Robert and Teresa for four years. They basically grew up for four years separated from us, without their mom and dad. He said something else which I forget but the gist of it was that I realized how badly mom and dad felt about being separated from Robert y Teresa. They felt like they had done Robert and Teresa an injustice (they felt they had to). I had always felt sorry for ourselves because we could not see our brother and sister. I always thought the “pobrecitos” was us. This was the first time I had realized that the reason they felt so bad was not because of us, or because they missed them (which I am sure they did) but because of how Robert and Teresa must have felt and what they went through while they were here. I could tell in his voice how badly he felt. I have heard that voice in myself when I have gotten really annoyed. I felt like cr..p after asking that question. I am now happy I did. I learned a lot about my dad on that day.

...Bienvenido...

Once we arrived in Miami things were different from what we expected. We moved in to a house on 12th avenue and 16th street. A lot of us were living there, Abuelo, abuela, Roberto and Rosa and the kids and Tia China and tio Lulo and lulito. The picture kind of shows the house in the background. The house was big, it had four rooms. Tio lulo and Tia china slept in the first bedroom. Tio Lulo and Tia China are pictured with Robert. I think I slept in the room next to mom and dad’s room and the dining room but I am not sure. I do remember being ill at the time. I got some kind of stomach virus and I always blamed it on the last thing I ate on the plane. It hit me pretty bad and I ended up watching a lot more television than I normally do.

Here in Miami they had three channels. These were channels 4, 7 and 10. You could sometimes also see channels 5 and 12 but only barely, and they just seemed to play the same things as the other channels, although sometimes at different times. Since I Had not been able to watch TV in Cuba, either because it was not available (TV was broken) or mom and dad thought it best not to allow us to watch it due to the propaganda that was playing. I say this only because of an experience I once had. We were at Teresita’s house where dad would play dominoes every Sunday. Usually we would just watch them play but this time the TV was on. I started watching…

A Cuban gentleman was very hungry and dressed in poor clothes. He sat in the steps of the church as he would sadly plead for food for his three starving children. His wife was pregnant and also starving. I think there was a wedding about to occur and people wanted him to leave the steps of the church. This was a really pitiful man. You would feel sorry for him because he was in such dire straits. The story went on and the gentleman wanted to stay there asking for money for his family. Then a priest came. out of the church to speak to him. I was sure the priest would come up with a reasonable solution to the problem. The priest was kind looking and was wearing a robe. He took out a gun and shot him three times.

I was shocked. So much so that when I went home I asked mom why did the priest shoot that nice man. I do not remember what she said. I do remember her yelling at dad and saying “Come es que tu as dejado que tu hijo vea esa porqueria?” It wasn’t a fight. I never did see them fight. I was not allowed to watch TV at Teresita’s house any more.

Our television set broke mysteriously until so big an event would take place which my parents needed to watch. For example La Bahia de cochinos, or the death of president Kennedy or when Gary Powers was shot down. They had to hear the news and mysteriously the TV set was fixed. I bought it hook line and sinker.

That Saturday I was sick and had to stay in bed. I started watching the Rodeos. I did not understand it. In Spain they would kill the bull. You have to understand that in my mind the bull was mean. He did attack the guy in the funny suit. If the guy was not careful, he would get killed. That would hardly ever happen. Here they would tie the bull and have some cowboy ride the bull. They would let the bull go and then rapidly the bull would get the guy off his back. The whole thing lasted like 12 seconds. I did not understand this at all. Usually the cowboy would get hurt and some clown would come by to entertain the bull so the cowboy would not get gored. . I switched channels and a strange person was on who was talking to like a stadium full of people. My mom warned me to not listen to that since the guy was Protestant not Catholic. I could not speak English anyway but he seemed to say Jesus a lot. His name was Billy Graham. I got bored of that so then I watched wrestling. These were really exciting. I did not know how these guys did not get hurt. In boxing the guy would box but you would see them get hurt, but not in wrestling. Carlos told me they were faking it. They would not really fight. Yeah Right!!! I kept flipping channels and saw a game called Football. This I really did not understand and flipped the channel again.

Soon after that we had to go enroll in school. We had never been in school before. Mom took Carlos and Me to Sts. Peter and Paul School. Robert was attending Sts Peter and Paul. I believe Teresa was in Coral Way elementary. They put me in the second grade, even though my age indicated that I should go to 3rd grade. I think they put Carlos in third grade. Mom did not like this so we left. Turi got screwed and was left in kindergarten. She enrolled us in Coral Way elementary. There they put Carlos and me in 3rd and 4th grade respectively. It turns out that I was placed in third grade on a trial basis. They would allow me to continue in the third grade until the first grading period was in. If I did well I could keep going in third grade, if not then……. I went the first day and then the second day. Then I talked to Teresa and told her that it was horrible. Remember we had never gone to school before. Mom and dad were afraid that we would be expolsed to all of the propaganda, so we were kept out of school. All we had was the lady who would teach us Spanish and had migraines. A the end of the third day I told Teresa, boy I am glad that is over with. I almost started crying when I realized I had to go back to school the next day.

I kept watching Robert do homework. He was in the eighth grade in Mr. Noguera’s class. His teacher for Algebra was Sister Ann Raymond. I thought I was pretty good at math but he was doing this funny math. They always said he was really intelligent. I took that as a challenge. I tried to do his math. It included a lot of x’s and y’s. I would ask him, what is this number x. He would say it stood for any number (podia ser cualquier numero) I kept thinking. This is easy. Make it always zero and there you go. Years later when I actually learned Algebra I would always think back on that.

Teresa and Silvia ( my cousin) served a advisors for me in Coral Way Elementary School. I guess they went there too. They said whatever you do not take Mrs. Sanchez. And watch out for the principal, (el principal). If you are sent to his office you are in real trouble. The principal’s name was Mr. Logan. He had all white hair. I was so scared of him. El Principal. Mrs. Lecours seemed to like me. Every once in a while she would call me to the back of the classroom. She would bring all these clothes for me to try on. She would then give me the ones that fit. She was actually a nice lady. She gave a leather jacket which I really liked. It had a small whole in the pocket but that was okay. I would wear that jacket every chance I would get. This class was in a portable classroom. It was a divided class. The left side was for fourth grade and the right side was third grade. I would never know who Mrs Lecours was teaching, the third graders or the fourth graders. I kept answering the questions for the fourth graders. I think for a while there she was considering placing me in the fourth grade because I was so advanced in mathematics. In English I had no idea what the teacher was saying.



One day I was in class and Mr. Logan came in the room. I immediately tensed up. Teresa had said that he was the boss. He is the principal. He stopped and talked to the teacher, Mrs Lecours. She said one word to him and pointed towards me. I was now really scared. He came towards me and I started to take off. I was halfway out of my chair and he extended his hand; he said “bienvenido”……I guess I made it into the third grade.

They looked really different....

Although we really had a very enjoyable time in Spain, we really did not appreciate it that much at the time. The overriding concern my parents had was reuniting us with RobertyTeresa. That is how it was always said one word, RobertyTeresa. Robert y Teresa were sent to Miami with my uncle and aunt, Tio Lulo y Tia China. We were the last of the clan to stay in Cuba apparently for two reasons; to take care of Abuelo Arturo and Abuela Maximina and I suspect another reason was that there were so many of us (hijos de Roberto y Rosa) that it would have been difficult to start all over in Miami with seven kids and no jobs. Robert was also getting to be an age where it would be more difficult to get out of Cuba since military service began at the age of 12 (los pioneros). They came over in 1961 with my aunt and uncle. I think were were supposed to come to the states earlier than we did, it just became more difficult. I am sure Mom and Dad felt guilty about having to be separated from them Mom and dad were very worried about Robert y Teresa. They were particularly worried about Robert. He had been diagnosed with a disease called Pertes disease. This is a rare disease where the hip joints get worn out as the child grows. This leads to a very unusual way of walking were the child will bob from side to side as he or she walks. I do not know at what age Robert was diagnosed with it but I know he was in a full body cast for one year and half casts for some time after that. Mom and dad were looking forward to being with them again. Hence the whole family was, even though I suspect only Carlos and I specifically remembered them, it was with much anticipation that we boarded the plane from Madrid to New York City because we were going to be reunited with Robert y Teresa.

I do not remember as much about the trip from Madrid, Spain to the United States. I know the airplane was a four engine Jet Plane. The company was Alitalia. It traveled from Spain to New York City. The trip was only seven hours; it seemed longer though. We would then catch another plane to go to Miami. It was the type of jet plane that had its engines on the wings. I was surprised that the airplane did not seem to go any faster than the four propeller plane. When you are on the inside you really cannot tell how fast you are going. I remember a few things about the plane ride. What I remember the most was the food. They served these little pasta squares which on the inside was filled with meat and cheese. I later found out these were called Ravioli. We were also served some type of steak for dinner. It had some type of white sauce on it which seemed to taste alright, although it was different. I particularly remember the Ravioli because later I would throw up(once I got to our new home) and it was the last thing I had eaten. For many years I could not even stand the aroma of Ravioli being made in the kitchen. We hit some turbulence and the plane seemed to shake a lot. There was a child on the plane which kept screaming that we were going to die or something similar. I was not worried since the Captain kept saying that everything was alright; this type of thing happens all the time and there was nothing to worry about. I bought the Captain’s explanation and did not understand why some people were so worried. Having now seen all these movies were the airplane runs into major problems and the captain is never worried, I probably should have been quite nervous.

There were some problems while landing. Actually there was one problem. It could not. I saw New York City early on and for what seemed to be an eternity. I was told that we were circling because there were some problems with the runway. I kept worrying what would happen if we ran out of gas while up there? Would we gradually lose altitude or would we just take a dive. I was just so tired. I kept having a headache because I would see what I know now is Manhattan and then we would turn around and circle again. We finally landed. I was surprised when we got off the airplane that we did not walk through the tarmac. We were in some type of tube which led us right to the terminal. At the time I did not realize it. I just wondered how we got from the airplane into the terminal. I later figured out what it was.
I do not know if it was by design or if it happened due to the delays, but we landed in one airport (I think it was Kennedy or LaGuardia) and then the plane taking us to Miami was taking off from another one. We had to move fast and get to the other airport. The whole family took what I believe was taxis or it could have been an airport transport, in order to get there. It was fairly cold out but not freezing outside. We finally got to the airport and the airplane took off for Miami. It was an Eastern Airlines four engine Jet plane. We were in Miami very fast (less than two hours). There the whole family was waiting for us. I remember very little about this except that there were a lot of people there. People I vaguely remembered and some I did not remember at all. Most of them had left Cuba years ago. We were so jet lagged and lost we just wanted to go home and go to sleep. I remember Heriber who took me and Carlos to get the plastic dinosaur from the machine. I remember Lulito saying hello; tio Lulo calling us berraco; I know we looked for Robert and Teresa, but I do not remember seeing them there. Perhaps they were spending time with Mom and Dad. I know I kept looking for them They must have been feeling odd since they all of a sudden where joined by five family members, one of which they had named (Juan Pablo) but not met. Another which they had not really met. In any case we had all changed so much it was like meeting each other for the first time.

Both Teresa and Robert looked really different. The last time I had seen them was when I was three going on four. Teresa was 7 going on 8. Robert was 9 going on 10. I do not really remember when they left Cuba, I presume because we were not really told. I just remember they were not there. I also remember Mom and Dad being very sad I. I posted a few pictures which show what they looked like when we last we saw them in Cuba and what they looked like when we saw them again in Miami. In this picture is Robert, I believe carrying Rosa. This was in 1961 so Rosa must be months old. In the other picture is Teresa with Carlos. Carlos must have been four years old. I was even younger. Now Teresa looked a lot thinner than I had remembered. She was in the sixth grade already so she must have been 11 going on 12 years old. The last time I remembered seeing her she was 7 years old and was about to go to the bathroom and she was telling me to leave . I was playing hide and seek ( a los escondidos) and the bathroom communicated between two rooms and was the perfect place to hide. I did not understand why she wanted me to leave. ( a psychiatrist would have a field day with this). Robert looked even more different. The last time I saw him he was walking across the hall in the house in Cuba. The Cuban sillon was in the way and he skipped over the wood that extends behind the sillon. That is the only firm recollection I had. I did not remember any other incident. Carlos probably remembers more. I sometimes forget how young we were when the separation took place. While in Cuba I felt like I knew both of them very well. Now in Miami I felt that I did not know them. They also acted different. They seemed a lot quieter than we were. I think they were kind of in shock. All of a sudden they had this huge family and all the rules had been changed around them We would have all these expressions which they did not understand. The picture of the whole family was taken a few days after our arrival in front of our house on 12th avenue. Finally the family was together again. We just had to get to know each other one more time.

Rosa found a really good picture of the family when Robert y Teresa left Cuba. The picture I chose of Carlos and Teresa was aparently taken a little bit earlier. Thanks Rosa.

Back row; Dad, Ramon (4), Rosa (1 month?), Mom. Front row: Teresa (8), Arturo (2), Carlos (5), Robert (9). I do not know the exact date although Rosa cannot be more than a couple of months old. That would make it November or December of 1961.

From left to right (back row) Carlos, 10, Teresa, 12, Robert, 14, (front row) Rosa (4), Juan Pablo (2), Arturo (6), Ramon (8). The ages are approximate since I do not really know the date the picture was taken. I believe it was around November of 1965. I know it was after Halloween, I do not know if it was before or after Thanksgiving.