The common denominator between generations of Cubans….

If you are 95 or if your 25 and find yourself as a Cuban exile in the USA or anywhere in the World.

It is because you cannot live in true freedom, democracy and prosperity in your homeland, Cuba.

On February 18 a day of listening to a 95 year old!!! He lived the episode of January 1, 1959, and more, when Fidel Castro took over Cuba.


What a blessing to be able to get to 95 is clear of mind; healthy and just have a few 95 year old issues.

What an honor to once again be in the presence of a dear friend of my parents and husband of my Godmother, Bettina.


Cornel Armando Echemendia, spent 20 years in a political prison, everyday they yelled Paredon. Meaning… take him to the firing squad! God had bigger plans for Cornel Armando; he re-united with his family in 1980, and started his life over, after spending 20 years as a political prisoner.

As we spent the afternoon together along with his daughter whom also remembers all the terror that took place in Columbia, military base in Mariano, Cuba 1959.


The more I listened to him and his daughter. It is evident that it does NOT matter when you left Cuba as a political prisoner or if you were just someone seeking freedom, democracy or the American dream.

The bottom line, you or we are all equal on this plight for Liberty & Democracy in Cuba.

A democracy that has never truly been, perhaps it is our duty to bring it to our homeland.


Finally,  man like Cornel Armando Echemendia, General Francisco Tabernilla, and others are able to tell their story. They are able to explain the story of those man and woman silenced by death by Castro and Che. Or silenced by the roughness of the ocean, who never made it to the Florida shores, or wherever the ocean would take them.   Silenced by the downing of their aircraft.  To confirm, the story, to the children and or grand children of those silenced by their early death.

We know the Castro regime and those who continue to follow them, are annoyed of the raising of the historical exiles, annoyed that the other side of the story will and is being told, not by those who never did anything but by man who were part of the timeline of 1952 to 1959.  Man and woman who have shown humbleness throughout the years, who accepted their fate, yet never forgot where, why, what and how they arrived on this journey.  

They were carried by faith, wisdom, courage, and foresight that someway, somehow the story would be told for future generations.

I encourage all those who only know how to divide and criticize, for the sake of keeping a cruel mad man in power. To walk in the shoes of these man and woman who throughout the years have fought to defend their nation and demand their human and civil rights, under something the cruel mad men erased from our history, the Constitution of Cuba.

It is time for all Cubans of all generations to rise up, stand your ground and face your truth.

Perhaps it is up to our generation to help those inside Cuba once and for all be the Country so many have dreamed of.

A country that will never again fall in the hands of a dictator, people to understand that to have democracy it is through “we the people” and democracy is not made by one man or woman.

Liberty and Democracy are sustained by a vision, by a proclamation and the will to be free!

“I cultivate a white rose”
“Cultivo la Rosa Blanca”

If you or one of your family members wants to be part of the archive of your Cuban story, please contact me directly.