Cuba Libre

      More Letters From Paradise
             Cuba Libre
It's in all the U.S. History books. The so-called "Cold War," between the U.S. and Russia. The very scary time when we almost had a nuclear war. In short, the Russians had placed missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy forced the Russians to remove them, and then imposed an embargo on Cuba. That embargo placed so long ago is about to be lifted by President Obama. Everyone seems to agree that it is about time.

Cuba has had a role in the life of my family on my mother's side. I used to go up into my grandparent's attic on the third floor and find baskets and other stuff relating to Cuba. I learned that my grandfather Roy Beal, had once managed the largest fruit plantation on the island of Cuba. This was before World War I. It seems that a few investors who called themselves the "Cuban Development Co." asked my grandfather to go down to Cuba and manage the plantation for four months. He stayed four years, and only returning with his wife and children to America when the Lusitania was torpedoed. My uncle Tom was born there, which caused him much trouble later. My mother was fluent in Spanish when she came back to the U.S. at age seven.

There are old photos of the plantation house, grandpa and grandma in a horse drawn buggy, and some others too. Grandpa had a lot of stories to tell me. One story was about the time when he had to blindfold the eyes of the horse and lead him into the river to swim across, with my grandmother in the buggy. It was night time too. And then the story of how the Cubans burned their cane fields using a turtle. I wrote about this somewhere earlier on my blog. Another story was about some college boys who had been sent down to Cuba by the owners of the company. There had been the death of a Cuban man, and the boys climbed into the empty coffin as a prank. They died sometime later back in the U.S.  Curse? who knows?

Grandpa had large hands and as they filled boxes of oranges to be shipped to New York, he would hold three in each hand when counting and filling boxes.

I have another connection with Cuba. When I was a small boy, I was befriended by a Spanish-American war veteran called Jake Lightfoot, who had fought in Cuba. I wrote about this too, earlier on my blog.

Another brush I had with Cuba was when I was in the Navy. I remember how we cheered Fidel Castro in his victory over the dictator  Batista. Then Castro declared himself to be a Communist. This led to the Russian missile crisis and the embargo. I have come full circle. I would like to visit there again someday.

     Aloha
     Grant