Chapter 8: Cuba: Flight to Freedom: A Cuban Immigrant’s Journey Through Education

It was my first day of kindergarten in the Fall of 1966 in Playa de Santa Fé, a small town near Havana, Cuba. Fidel Castro and his bearded army of revolutionaries had ousted the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista on New Year’s Day in 1959. Of humble peasant origins, Batista rose quickly through the military ranks. He ruled Cuba twice: 1933–1944 and 1952–1959. It was in his second rule that he emerged as a brutal dictator, incarcerating political opponents, and enriching himself on the backs of the citizenry. As popular unrest grew on the island—and after the United States’ withdrawal of support in 1958—the guerrilla army of Castro and his rebels were able to wrestle power from Batista and establish a new revolutionary government.