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81. Finding Dad in a Museum

By Miguel Pérez

​
Aug 18, 2015 -There I was, on my Great Hispanic American History Tour, visiting yet one more gallery where our heritage is on display, and much to my surprise — through my camera lens — I made a discovery that almost knocked me down.

I was visiting Miami's Freedom Tower, the National Historic Landmark that served as the U.S. government's "Cuban Refugee Center" in the 1960s and early 1970s, and I was determined to write a very personal account of what that building means to me — how it received my own family when it served as "the Ellis Island of the South."

But nothing had prepared me for the shock I received last week when I entered the tower — now a museum — for the first time in more than 50 years.

As I viewed a wonderful photo exhibit depicting what occurred there in the 1960s, I was already overwhelmed with nostalgic emotions. The exhibit, "The Exile Experience: Journey to Freedom," shows the crowded waiting rooms filled with refugees and the social workers trying to assist them, the doctors and dentists treating children, the refugees receiving surplus food rations and used clothing, and families applying for relocation assistance and planning to move to other parts of the country.

It shows the faces of desperation of a people who had given up everything — just to be free.

"I was part of that history," I kept telling myself. "The families in those photos could easily be my family."

And then, as I began to take my own photos of the exhibit, in the forefront of a poster-sized photograph, I spotted my own father.

My knees buckled. My eyes instantly watered. And my mouth uncontrollably uttered the words, "Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God!" I took several steps backward and nearly lost my balance. For a moment, I didn't know where to put myself. I thought I was going to faint, so I felt this urge to sit on the floor, but somehow I managed to resist it.

Staring at that photo is what held me up. I was mesmerized. It shows my father, Benito Perez, at the age of 42, about to receive the family's monthly food ration at the Freedom Tower in 1962.

I had visited his gravesite a couple of days earlier. He was 67 when he died of cancer in 1987.

I felt immense joy and sadness at the same time. I have seen many wonderful and impactful exhibits during the past few years, but none has been so shocking and personal. None had made me cry tears of joy.

Before long, other museum visitors were offering to take my picture next to my father, and I was posing next to him — bursting with pride.

And shortly after that, a museum administrator wanted to know all about my father and my family history. I went there hoping to interview museum officials, and they ended up interviewing me.

"Tell me about your father," said Sierra Manno, the museum's front desk associate. "We like to tell anecdotes about the people in the photos when we give our tours."

In my cross-country search for our hidden Hispanic heritage, I have been on many of those anecdote-animated museum tours, but I never imagined that my own family history could be part of one.

As I walked through the corridors of the Freedom Tower, I kept seeing myself as the 11-year-old boy who took his first step to freedom in that building shortly after arriving from Cuba on April 7, 1962.

"In the 1960s, as the Freedom Flights continued to bring two plane-loads of Cubans daily to Miami, the Freedom Tower expanded and converted," the exhibit explains. "The second floor was the processing center, the basement became the medical and dental clinic, the third and fourth floors were records centers."

It was there that my refugee papers were processed. It was there that I crossed my golden gate to a new life in the United States — for which I will be eternally grateful.

"El Refugio" — that's what we called it in Spanish. That's where I was treated by dentists and other doctors and where I acquired my first winter clothing and my nerdiest eyeglasses. That's where, once a month, my father would pick up a Red Cross care package, containing powdered milk, peanut butter, lard, canned meat and a block of American cheese. That's where he constantly resisted the temptation to have our family relocated to another state.

"Cubans leaving for the U.S. only carried three sets of clothing — and no cash or valuables. Once they left for the U.S., their homes were confiscated by the communist government," the exhibit explains. "Refugees relocating to a cold climate were given donated coats and shoes. They also received financial assistance, from $25 to $60-a-month ($155-$460 in today's economy) depending on the size of the family. Once they found employment and could support themselves, the aid stopped."

My parents almost took up offers to move to Arkansas and Texas, but we managed to survive in Miami, thanks to my father's business ingenuity. He bought an old station wagon and created his own business by buying fresh produce from the farmers market and reselling it to Little Havana's Cuban bodegas. A proud man, he took our family off public assistance as rapidly as he could. Eventually, the business grew into a van, and his bodega clients became supermarkets. And that was the business that sustained our family until he died in 1987.

As his Saturday assistant, I spent my teenage years carrying sacks of onions and potatoes — and learning to appreciate how hard my father worked during the rest of the week. I saw all the sacrifices he made, leaving behind a comfortable life in Cuba so that my brother and I could live in a free society.

Only 13 years later, in 1975, that 11-year-old boy had become the Miami Herald reporter assigned to write an in-depth story on the history of the Cuban Refugee Program and the U.S. government's plans to phase it out gradually. Though the Cuban Refugee Center at the Freedom Tower was closed in 1974, the Cuban Refugee Program continued several years longer, and it was my job to chronicle its history and forecast its demise.

At that time, I reported that of the 650,000 Cubans who had immigrated to the United States since Fidel Castro took power in 1959, some 460,000 had sought U.S. government assistance. The federal government had spent more than $1 billion to help the exiles find jobs, give them career training, provide for their medical care, give them financial assistance and help them relocate from Miami to other parts of the country. Almost 300,000 had resettled in all 50 states.

In the spring of 1975, shortly after the Cuban Refugee Center was relocated to smaller offices in Little Havana, the program's acting director, Philip A. Holman, told a congressional committee that 8 in 10 Cubans were able to stand on their own feet and introduced a plan to gradually discontinue the program.

"The basis for this (phaseout) proposal continues to be that the emergency situation which gave rise to the Cuban refugee program over 14 years ago has passed," Holman testified, "that very few new Cuban refugees are reaching the United States and that the refugees, as a group, have moved into the economic stream of American life, paying federal, state and local taxes on the same basis as other residents of the communities in which they live."

Though the program was phased out during the next few years, the Freedom Tower changed hands for the next 20 years, until 1997, when it was purchased for $4 million by the late Cuban exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa, who died before realizing his dream of turning the whole building into a Cuban exile museum.

The Mas family eventually sold the tower to developer Peter Martin, who donated it to Miami Dade College in 2005. The Mediterranean Revival-style tower and its museum are now part of the college campus, facing Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami and striking an amazing contrast with the surrounding modern high-rises and the futuristic area where the Miami Heat play basketball.

The building opened in 1925 as the home of the Miami Daily News. It was designed by the same architects who built some of the country's most renowned hotels, including the Biltmore in Coral Gables, Florida, The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. But it was modeled after La Giralda, the bell tower of the Cathedral of Seville, Spain.


"The Miami Daily News moved out of the tower in 1957. In the summer of 1962, the U.S. federal government leased the building, which was large enough to process the high number of Cuban refugees fleeing Fidel Castro's communist regime," the exhibit explains. "El Refugio became the Ellis Island of the Cuban exodus. It was a one-stop center for the refugees to obtain healthcare, housing, financial assistance and education. The Freedom Tower is the single most important physical manifestation of this period of Cold War-era politics. To this day it remains an iconic symbol for Miami's Cuban exile community."

For me and my family, now that I've found my father in one of its exhibits, the Freedom Tower is even more significant than I imagined. And that precious moment when I spotted my father through my camera lens will live with me forever. My Great Hispanic American History Tour has brought me home.

COPYRIGHT 2015 CREATORS.COM
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My Great Hispanic American History Tour is on the road again. ​See: California Road Trip

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En español
Encontré a mi padre en un museo

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Miguel Perez at Freedom Tower
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Familia
My family shortly after arriving from Cuba in 1962, with my father wearing the same shirt he wore in the photo above at the Cuban Refugee Center - one of three shirts he was allowed to take out of Cuba.
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                   CHAPTERS/CAPITULOS

1. Our Pre-Mayflower Thanksgivings
Nuestros Días de Acción de Gracias Pre-Mayflower
               
2. A Tale of Two Cities
                 
3. Our Pre-Hispanic Heritage
              

4. The Black Legend Returns

4. La Leyenda Negra Regresa
                
5. Even on HBO, The Black Legend Lives
                   
6. Our Spanish Heritage
                     
7. Exalted or Offended?
                    
8. We are all 'Americanos'
                  
9. Latinos are Failing
                  
10. Hispanic, Columbus or Indigenous Day?
10. 
™Dia Hispano, De Colon o Indigena?
                   
11. Two Good Places to Rest
11. Dos buenos lugares para descansar
                  
12. Whitman's Prophetic Letter
12. La Carta Profética de Whitman
                  
13. America’s Cradle
13. La Cuna de America
                 
14. Our Quincentennial is Coming!

14. ´Nuestro Quinto Centenario Se Avecina!
                   
15. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 29
                
16. A Time To Welcome the Spirits
                  
17. A Hispanic Christmas
17. Una Navidad Hispana
                  
18. JOSE MARTI:
     His Legacy Lives Here
     Su Legado Vive Aquí 
                
19. Hyphenated and Proud!
                   
20. Politicizing Education

21. Speak Any Spanish Lately?
              
22. Happy Three Kings Day!
22. ​
´Feliz Día de Reyes!
               
23. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 29

24. A Long-Overdue Museum
                 
25. America's First Christmas was celebrated in Spanish
25. La Primera Navidad Americana fue celebrada en español

26. The Grand Canyon
and the Bucket List
 Of Hispanic Heritage
26. El Gran Canyon
y la Lista de Lugares de la Herencia Hispana

                  
27. Now That Fiesta Month Is Here,
Can We Talk About Heritage?

27. Ahora que el mes de fiesta hispana esta aquí,

​™Podemos hablar de nuestra herencia?
                  
28. Our Hispanic Heritage: On Exhibit and Yet Hidden
28. Nuestra Herencia Hispana: En Exhibición y Sin Embargo Oculta

29. Florida's Birthday Should Be a National Holiday

             
30. A Local Celebration that Should be National               

31. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 30               
​

32. The Conveniently 'Forgotten War'
32. La Guerra Convenientemente Olvidada

33. Guantanamo Has a History  June 4, 2013

34. Exposing the Social Media Bigots  June 18, 2013
34. Exponiendo a los Intolerantes
     de los Medios Sociales June 18, 2013

35. Thinking of Cusi On the Fourth of July
35. Pensando en Cusi en el Cuatro de Julio

36. The Discovery of White Hispanics
36.  El Descubrimiento de los Hispanos Blancos

37. Let's Build a Timeline Of Hispanic-American History
37. Vamos a Construir una Cronología
     De la Historia Hispanoamericana

38. In the Name of Heritage
38. En el Nombre de la Herencia

39. Hispanics or Latinos?
39. ™Hispanos o Latinos?

40.  Hollywood's Hidden Hispanic Heritage
40. La Herencia Hispana Oculta en Hollywood

41. Obliviously Living in ‘The Land of Estevan Gomez’
41. Viviendo Inconscientemente
       En la ‘Tierra de Estevan Gómez’

42. Marking America's Birthplace
42. Marcando el Lugar de Nacimiento De Estados Unidos

43. Hispanics in Denial Should Be Infamous
43. Los Hispanos en Rechazo Deben Ser Infames

44. 
Gay Marriage's Hidden American History
      Started in Spanish
 CABEZA DE VACA'S JOURNEY
44. La Historia Oculta del Matrimonio Gay
      En América Comenzó en Español
        EL VIAJE DE CABEZA DE VACA​

45. Super Bowl Coke Commercial
       Draws Out Ugly Americans

45. Comercial de Coke en Super Bowl
     Hace Relucir a los Americanos Feos


46. 
The 'Discovery' of Self-Loathing Hispanics
46. El ‘Descubrimiento' de los
     Hispanos que se Auto Desprecian


THE GREAT HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY TOUR 
June 2014 - January 2015


47. My Pilgrimage to San Xavier
47. Mi Peregrinaje a San Xavier

48. The Great Hispanic American History Tour
48. La Gran Gira por la Historia Hispanoamericana

49. On the Trail of Conquistadors
49. En el Camino de los Conquistadores

50. Beyond St. Augustine
50. Más Allá de San Agustín

51. A Hidden Hispanic Role Model
51. Un Modelo Hispano Oculto

52. The Hispanic Flank of the American Revolution
52. El Flanco Hispano de la Revolucion Americana
​

53. New Orleans Has a Spanish ‘Ne Sais Quoi’
53. Nueva Orleans Tiene Un ‘Ne Sais Quoi’ Español

54. Galveston: Still the Isle of Misfortune?

55. Extracting Compacted History
     Unveils Hidden Hispanic Heritage

56. 'Remember The Alamo' Was a Spanish Mission

57. San Antonio: The Showcase Of Our Hispanic Heritage

58. There Was Compassion On the Spanish Mission Trail

59. A Hidden Latina Role Model

60. Time Portals on the Road

61. The First Thanksgiving
     In the (Southwest) United States

62. The World's Biggest Statue
of a Nameless Horseback Rider


63. A River Runs Through Our Hispanic Heritage

64. A Beacon of Hope On a Border Mountaintop

65. A Mexican-American Town
65. Un Pueblo Mexico-Americano

66. The Crossroads of Conquistadors

67. Hiking In Search of Coronado's Trail

68. The Real American Pioneers

69. Keeping My Pledge to San Xavier

70. If They Knew Arizona's History,
     They Wouldn't Be So Xenophobic

71. 'Tucson' is a Spanish Adaptation

72. Under a Utah Lake, Hispanic Heritage Lives

73. A Hilltop View Of Hispanic Heritage

74. Searching for Coronado's Quivira

75. The Spanish Savior of St. Louis

76. 
Jefferson's Spanish Library

WASHINGTON, D.C.
February-June 2015

77. When Galvez Came to Congress
77. Cuando Gálvez Vino al Congreso


78. A Tour of Our Extraordinarily Hispanic U.S. Capitol

79. Searching for Not-S0-Hidden
Hispanic Heritage in Washington, DC


80. Smithsonian Omits Hispanics In U.S. History Exhibit
80. Smithsonian Omite a los Hispanos
     en Exhibición de Historia de EE.UU.
MIAMI - August 2015
​
81. Finding Dad in a Museum
81. Encontre a Mi Padre en un Museo


​CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP - 2018
82. International Friendship Park ​at U.S.-Mexico Border
​- A Jagged Corner of the World


83. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
​
84. Cabrillo National Monument

85. ​It took more than 2 centuries

86. Presidio Park: The Birthplace
of the Spanish Colonization of California


87. Junípero Serra Museum Transcends the Story of a Great Man

88. Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá:
California's First Spanish Mission


89. Old Mission (Padre) Dam: California's First Aqueduct

90. Even at the beach in San Diego, you can't avoid Spanish history

91. Chicano Park: Mexican-American ​painted under highway ramps

92. Balboa Park: Candy for your eyes amid a painful controversy!

93. San Diego: An American Town
Named After the Saint from Alcalá

93. San Diego: Un Pueblo Americano
Lleva el Nombre del Santo de Alcalá


94. San Luis Rey de Francia: The King of the California Missions
94. San Luis Rey de Francia: ​El Rey de las Misiones de California

95. San Antonio de Pala:
A Sub-Mission to Reach
 the Natives of the Interior
95. San Antonio de Pala:
Una Asistencia para Alcanzar los Nativos del Interior

96. San Juan Capistrano:
The Home of the Mission Swallows
 from Argentina
96. San Juan Capistrano:
El Hogar de las Golondrinas Desaparecidas ​de Argentina

97. San Gabriel Arcángel: A Mission that Launched Cities
97. San Gabriel Arcángel: Una Misión Que Lanzó Ciudades

98. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Ángeles:
Hispanics had to be imported

98. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Ángeles:
Hispanos tuvieron que sen importados


99. La Plaza de Cultura y Artes:
A Walk through Mexican-American History

99. La Plaza de Cultura y Artes:
Un Paseo por la historia 
​mexicoamericana


100. Strolling the Hispanic Walk of Fame
​100. Caminando por el Paseo Hispano de la Fama

101. San Fernando Rey de España Teaches
California's Colonial History

101. ​​San Fernando Rey de España Enseña
la historia colonial de California


​102. Mission San Buenaventura Survived Earthquakes and Pirates
102. Misión San Buenaventura Sobrevivió Terremotos y Piratas

​103. Father Serra Cross: On a hill,
​overlooking ​the land he shepherded

​103. La Cruz del Padre Serra: En una colina,
​con vistas a la tierra que pastoreaba


104. The Birthplace of Santa Barbara
104. El Lugar de Nacimiento de Santa Barbara

105. The Queen of the Spanish Missions
105. La Reina de las Misiones Españolas

106. Mission Santa Ines: Built to relieve other overcrowded missions
106. Misión Santa Inés: Construida para aliviar otras misiones superpobladas

107. Mission La Purísima Concepcion:
​Going back in time ​to Spanish California

107. Mision La Purísima Concepción:
Retrocediendo en ​el tiempo a la California española


XXX. Saluting an exile: ​Father Félix Varela
XXX. The Meaning of 'Sotomayor'
SPECIAL SECTIONS
• Great (pro-Hispanic) Americans
​
• 16th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
• 17th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
• 18th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
​
• Spanish-American expeditions before Jamestown
• NYC ​Hispanic Landmarks
• NYC Hispanic Art
• Do You Know/Sabes?
• Garita Art
​
• Do You Speak Spanglish?
HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY TIMELINE
​1513 Ponce de Leon Discovers North America, Names Her 'Florida'

April 22, 1513 ​Alaminos discovers the Gulf Stream

1517 De Cordoba, wounded in Yucatan, stops in Florida

1518 Grijalva Reaches Galveston Island

1519 De Pineda confirms Florida ​is not an island​

1521 Ponce de Leon Returns to Florida, Falls Mortally Wounded

1524-25 Estevan Gomez Explores North America's East Coast

1526 Ayllón lands in S.C., settles in Georgia


1528 Narváez expedition succumbs to storms and natives

1528-36 Cabeza de Vaca treks across North America

1537-42 Cabeza de Vaca Returns to Spain, Writes 'La Relación'

1539 De Niza Searches for Golden Cities of Cibola
​

1539-42 De Soto celebrates first American Christmas

1540 Hernando de Alarcon Reaches California

1540-42 Coronado Explores the Southwest,
Cardenas Discovers ​the Grand Canyon


1542-43  ​Cabrillo explores California coast​

1559 De Luna Builds Santa Maria de Ochuse​


1565 Pedro Menendez de Avilés Establishes San Agustin

1566 Santa Elena Built in South Carolina

1598 ​Juan de Oñate Explores New Mexico

1602 Sebastian Vizcaino ​explores the West Coast

1610 Pedro de Peralta establishes Santa Fe

1610-26 The Birth of San Miguel, oldest church in the U.S.A.

1613 Juan Rodriguez becomes the first Manhattan immigrant

1633 Misión San Luis de Apalachee is born in Tallahassee

​1682 San Antonio de la Ysleta becomes first mission in Texas

1691 Father Eusebio Kino builds Tumacácori and Guevavi

1692 ​Father Kino builds San Xavier del Bac 

1692 Diego de Vargas leads ​'Bloodless Reconquest" of Santa Fe

1695 Castillo de San Marcos ​Completed in St. Augustine

1718 Mission San Antonio de Valero is born
​- long before it became The Alamo
​

1738 Runaway slaves establish Fort Mose,
​the first free African-American community​


​1738 Francisco Menendez Leads Fort Mose

1742 Spanish Soldiers ​Open Fort Matanzas

1752 Spanish Soldiers Build Presidio de Tubac

1763 Spanish Florida Goes to England

1765 Juan Antonio Maria de Rivera ​explores ​Colorado and Utah
​
1769 
Father Serra opens ​San Diego de Alcalá,
California's first ​Spanish mission


1771 Father Serra establishes San Gabriel Arcángel

1772 Good hunting determines site
​of ​Misión San Luis Obispo de Tolosa


1775 Captain Hugh O’Connor
​builds Presidio San Agustin del Tucson


​1776-83 Hispanics in the American Revolution

1776 The Birth of San Francisco

1781 Spanish troops defeat the British, capture Pensacola

1781 Pobladores of Los Angeles are imported

1791 ​Alessandro Malaspina Alaska Reaches Alaska

1797 Fermín Francisco de Lasuén
Establishes Misión San Fernando Rey de España


1797 The Birth of Villa de Branciforte

Herencia Hispana Oculta de America:
La Lista de Lugares, Ideas, y Evidencia Historica para Reconectár a los Americanos con sus Raíces Hispanas

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America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage:
The Bucket List of Places, Ideas and Historical Evidence to Reconnect Americans with their  Hispanic Roots
  • HOME
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  • CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP
  • NYC HISPANIC LANDMARKS
  • NYC HISPANIC ART
  • ON THE ROAD AGAIN
  • EN EL CAMINO OTRA VEZ
  • OUR MEDALLIONS SAGA