Old Havana

        “I say if I can get out of here and go, I go.”

Arlo Rodriguez

August 19th, 1954 Havana Cuba

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                                   Divided by politics

     I grew up with Mom, two sisters, and two brothers. We live like…in a big room that was divided in three. It was a stone building with three floors. Lower level of the building, and we have like 1000 square feet divided into three. The boys slept in one room, and the girls in the other. The only place that was not a living quarter was da kitchen. The dining room and living room was the girls room and ours.

My mom used to make the best American/Cuban liver and onions. I was very close to my mother. Her biggest thing, she always emphasized… “I am a single mother and make sacrifices, and I want it in return for you to do the same for your children, and “the only bad wish is that your children would do the same thing you guys do to me”…. my kids did that for a while.

My father have remarried. I mean he and my mom were friends. We live in Havana, and he lived in a different district in Havana. He had a car and he worked close. So he come in visit my mom. He was a high level government official. He was what they call ah dey ah diplomatic district, and he have two-bedroom apartment for him and his wife, and one child.  He didn’t have no money. The systematic government is nothing, but power is. If you worked for a high level government then you have the privilege. Money is the main power in capitalist. Communism system is power. Whatever you wanted you could obtain. I was probably the only one of his offspring that was not following the communist lines. So..my father used to told me that I was…I was never going to become anyone…”worm”. Worms were someone who didn’t follow the revolution. He put me down a lot. He said I wouldn’t amount to anything.

Childhood Memories

I got my first girlfriend when I was 13. She was special to me. I mean we knew each other in grade school. In Cuba it’s not like here, or most of Latin America is the same way, like you can’t say “I’m leaving the neighborhood and going to Minnetonka”. You cannot just buy a house. You grow up with de people from the time you're born till the time you live. So it's like by the time you finish grade school, you already have your bond with people. Anna was her name. She used to tease me about my dimples and we flirted in 3rd or 4th grade. Her brother was a very good friend of mine. We ah used to go to the beach and one of my favorite thing to do was go without paying and going underneath the fence. We never got caught…no dey ah we went into groups and one person was the watcher and so we take all the clothes and we watched over everyone's property. When you live in a country like dat, there aren’t very sweet memories.

Pionero

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So we have the school, and you go through three different revolutionary branches/ organizations. From first grade to...ah 7th grade you are ah supposed to be a pionero(1) revolutionary. Red tie and red bonnets, and it was not a tie more like a handkerchief. It’s similar like boy scout. It was an indoctrination. When you go into high school dey got ah the young communist league. By the time I was in 4th grade I was really outspoken already, and my 4th grade teacher called me the public defender, and when someone was different and being indoctrinated by people who followed the party line I came into defense. So the second process was the union of young communist. You are in high school then they begin into the heavy indoctrination. They tell you about junkies and capitalist, they are brained wash to be a revolutionary. Then after you get out of high school the next is to become a member of the communist party (PCC)(2). They really brainwash you, because in the PCC it’s a merit system. For example, not everybody even if you got da money, can get a refrigerator. There is only so many refrigerators in the country. You get one by being apart of the communist party through merits. You still have to pay for it, but before you pay for it you have to own the privilege to buy it. So then there was the rations. So if you are a family of four you are entitled to so many 3 pounds of rice, sugar, and beans. So again it's not what you can buy, but it’s what the government says you can buy. They give you a coupon book, and you go to the store and you take your rations. You still have to pay out of pocket, but the ration book is what you need to go to the store to get it. People sold what was in the ration book. In the underground you can buy Counterfeit books. Every block there is the CDR (commit of defense of revolution)(3). The CDR is like a neighborhood watch. With every illegal activity you are supposed to go to the CDR and tell them. My first experience with the black market(4) was buying jeans. I was 15 in Central park Havana. Central park was like ah…the center of everything. I mean everybody is there, you just have to know who to mingle with. It was not a matter of needing or wanting the jeans, I was just wanting to be a rebel. I mean, I don’t want people to tell me what to wear or what not to wear, and what music to listen to or not to. Obtaining material stuff the Cuban government doesn’t want you to have.  

Floating to freedom

I always know I stay in Cuba, but by the time I was 14 or 15 years old, I know that was not a place for me. Looking back at my youth, I was, uh, kinda ambitious, you know, so, uh I like to dress nice so I learned I have to work hard if I want to dress nice. You know, so I was a hustler. So, but, I don’t know where I was gon’ to go. I mean everybody in Cuba... the only place you talk about was Miami. Everybody say I’m going to Miami, Miami, Miami. I-I-I don’t care where I was going to be going. I say if I can get out of here and go, I go.

I was expecting like growing up, I saw over and over  the footage of Americans and the white helmet police officers with the dogs beating the black people, you know. So even though that was way before my time, yet it still was very much a propaganda. It was like this is what the yankees do to the people. Mhmm, coming to America It took about 3 years between the decision and the planning. I believe it was mid June. We got on a raft. We were 12 people, and got a homemade raft and we just float for three days. We all were assigned to whatever happened, so if we die in the water we die in the water. The feeling of being free was what came to mind when we were floating.  When you're born and raised in free country you don’t know what freedom is. So it’s like you have to be more out of freedom to know what freedom is. Being able to dress how I wanted to dress, wear an afro if I want to wear an afro, listen to whatever music I want to listen to. Being able to speak freely about how I feel.  

The first place we arrived was Key West, Florida. Mhhm, I lived there for about 6 months. We were processed for a week, you know, and you go to the interviews with the immigration, and den dey FBI interviews you.

Havana in Minnesota

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Ah, I came here because of de money. Know that it’s very little ah opportunity when you live in places like Key West and Miami everything is... being in dat area and being able talking to so many people that speak my language, and being assimilated in that culture in the United States.So if you work in hotels you very much not make that much money. You work in the restaurants, and most of the group there in the restaurants are occupied by the families. So I start hearing people say if you go to places like the Chicago or da midwest you can make more money because there is a lot of need for labor, and factory work. So In 1981 I moved to Minnesota.

I mean Minnesota was kinda a culture shock.  Well it was just like, the way that people talked, ya know, like dawn and day, West coast and East coast people say howdy, and here dey say what’s up. What’s up? You know? It seemed as if dey wanted to fight..haha.

America has been good

I done a lot. Pepitos restaurant was my first job. I washed dishes there. Then I worked in the Radisson hotel as a dishwasher. I also worked on a meat packing plant on 28th & Nicollet. I scored the job because de a lot of latinos and Mexicans worked there. In dat time we were young and I used to go downtown, people assumed I was black. So I was, more welcomed in the Black spaces. Through the years as I learned to speak English and understand it I find out that I have more questions from Latino people.

Well, I worked in the da hospitals for about 11 years, then ah I had ah my wife moved to North Carolina for two years, because she working as a consultant for the marine course. I leased a taxi cab, and den it was like I kept 50% of what they made. Spent money and bought a taxi and drove half a day and leased it. And bought another one. When we were in North Carolina we rented our house. With the money I made with my taxes, we decided to buy two rent properties. I rent properties and sold it. Sold one kept another one.

I counted on myself to fix stuff..so I, uh, learned a little bit. It used to be you go to places and buy do it yourself supplies. Now, before the internet, you just do it yourself. And you step by step do electrical work, how to change a panel, how to do this. So i teach myself that, and...I become better handy. then I...got a rent-a-property, and was working for myself, doing odd jobs. And it was kinda ok...but was like if you can make, uh, $2000, it was hard to make the rest. So it was, uh, kinda risky, in that way. Soo, 1999, I apply with the city of Minneapolis, they hire me, and I’ve been working with them since then.

I am the crew leader for the sewer department. Soo, I, do everysing, uh, sanitary issue-related. So I got about, six, seventeen type machines, and I operate them all. Just so you know, another thing about me, is like, I am extremely aware of the, races and classes. But I, I consider myself very fortunate. I have.. really diverse group of friends. But I have, uh, a number de white individuals that been extremely good to me. So, I, can know, uh, when people bash the white race, I cannot do it because I got people been really nice to me you know, so. I mean, I got some white individuals that been nice to me, but racist to me. But for the most part, my experience with the white race in America has been good. Maybe it’s cuz I’m a foreigner, or, you know. I actually have more problems with African-American, um, than whites. Now, you know I was like, you go into a locker room and all you hear is da bitch this, da bitch that. So, I don’t talk with that kinda language. So, I, I have a  hard time with those type of people. So, like a lotta people say well, what’s up with Arlo? You know, he never hang out with da  guys, because I just no feel like one of da guys.

Place for me to stay

I come in da time when uh, it was total different, uh attitude about immigrants, ya know so, it was not bad environment to live in like it is right now. So uh, I mean uh, people were very helpful to me in this state. You know, I mean I got white people, black people, Mexican, Latino, that were really close to me. So I feel like...It was a good place for me to stay.

Just be yourself

"I think, just be yourself. Be yourself, work hard. You know, it’s not all, uh...roses. But you know, like I say, you got people to pull you down, you got people to lift you up. You know, so you can choose to...walk in the negative, or you can choose to ignore the negative, go past it."

-Arlo Rodriguez

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Footnotes

1. Pionero "pioneer"- helps ensure kids contribution to the revolutionary movement in Cuba

2. “CCP”- Partido Comunista de Cuba translates into Cuban communist party.

3 “CDR”-The CDRs act as the eyes and ears of the regime at the most personal level; they are designed as a "neighborhood watch" in which neighbors are both the watching and the watched. "Military." Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

4. “Black market”- La brosa negra is known as the cuban black market. The Cuban black market serves as an underground economic market that allows for the buying and selling of illegal goods. A lot of these good come from America where products have been banned because of the embargo on Cuba. "La Bolsa Negra” - The Best Cuba Travel Guide on the Internet." The Best Cuba Travel Guide on the Internet. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.

Picture Source

1. http://www.jeffcotner.com/2012/04/02/cuba-2012-part-1/

2. http://www.jeffcotner.com/2012/04/02/cuba-2012-part-1/

3. http://www.erikmoe.com/blog/2014/7/6/the-long-view-of-community-and-place

4. http://www.jeffcotner.com/2012/04/02/cuba-2012-part-1/

Contributors: A'nia-Nicole Rae, Erina Foran, and Taylor Tesch.