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Childhood
I grew up in a small town in the outskirts of Havana, Cuba. My father was a professor in electrical engineerig at the University of Havana and my mother was a housewife. I attended an excellent private bilingual school where I learned English in elementary school, in addition to my native Spanish. Tropical Cuba had delightful balmy weather, lots of beaches and great cultural activities. The Cuban economy was doing well in Pre-Castro Cuba, and there was a lot of individual freedom, but there were political problems with corrupt governments.
Landscape photos of Cuba.
Teen years
Then in 1959 Communism took over. I was in Cuba during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.
I was in Cuba when dictator Fidel Castro changed the currency. One Friday evening he announced that everyone was to take all the cash they were holding and deposit it in their bank during the next week. He did not say anything else. At the end of the next week he announced that the currency would be changed. Any cash being held by anybody would be worthless. The cash that had been deposited in banks by individuals in excess of $2,000 would be forfeited. Up to $2,000 of deposited money would be returned to its owner only at the rate of $100 per month. This is how Castro leveled everyone to the same low financial level.
In 1961 there was a lot of fear in Havana. Fear of Communism which was getting established. Individual freedoms were being lost. My parents sent me and my younger sister to the United States. When my parents sent us to the United States unescorted, we did not know if we were ever going to see each other again. It was either living under Communism for a lifetime or living in freedom for a lifetime. This was my parents greatest act of love. I settled in New Orleans, Louisiana. I completed two years of college at University of New Orleans. I was one of the lucky Peter Pan children who got to live in freedom. University of New Orleans
Young adult
I got married in 1969, and I had one daughter. My family lived in South Carolina where my husband was a student at the University of South Carolina. When he graduated in Geology, we moved to Winchester, Virginia where he worked in a limestone quarry. landscape photos of Winchester, Virginia
I was a full time housewife and mother for ten years. In 1975 we moved to Bear Lake Valley, Idaho where we lived in a small Mormon town. My husband commuted to Alaska to work on the Alaskan pipeline. In 1976-77 I helped build the Alaskan pipeline; I worked as a secretary at a construction camp on the Alaska pipeline for one construction season.
Adulthood
In 1983 we moved to Alaska, where my husband worked on the Alaskan pipeline. Landscape photos of Alaska
I worked as a legal secretary from 1980 to 1999. In 1985 I worked as a secretary at the campaign of Republican Dick Randolph for Governor of Alaska. Dick Randolph had served in the Alaska Legislature as a Libertarian previously, and he had sponsored and passed the Alaskan Dividend. This is the Alaskan reverse income tax. This governor's race was a primary race with thirteen Republican candidates. Dick Randolph ended up in third place. It was a high third place.
Middle age
In 1987 I got divorced and I moved back to New Orleans.
I met my husband Clark in 1990 when he was in New Orleans on a job assignment. Clark was a native of Central Texas. We lived in Round Rock, Texas on and off since 1991. While in Round Rock, I worked in manufacturing most of the time, at Abbott Laboratories and at Hospira, Inc. Then in 2004 Clark died after an illness.
I love Texas. Texas weather and vegetation are very much like Cuba's. Texas has an excellent economy, and it seems to have more individual liberties than some of the other states.
Scrapbook of old pictures
Recent pictures
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