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.
