Dear IF readers,

I cannot claim to know Castro or his Cuba.  I know Marta’s Cuba.  Marta is the godmother to my children and a surrogate mother of mine.  Her story, “Marta and her Cuba” was my launch story for the inaugural issue of International Family Magazine in November, 2005.  I traveled to Boston on an Amtrak with my two sons, Brody was 13 months old, Jax, 3 years old.  I wanted to sit with Marta on her sixtieth birthday to celebrate her and her life.  I asked her to tell me the story of her life in detail.  I had heard pieces over the years but wanted every detail, every breadth.  Marta had been my heroine for many years and I wanted to know how she had learned such courage, wisdom and compassion.

That evening as my baby sons slept, Marta and I sat up and I heard her life story.  A large part of her story was a paradise start to life in Cuba with her loving family and their neighbors, friends and thriving business.  Their immediately family numbered four, but there was always more around, and that suited Marta’s family just fine.  The family owned a store and helped everyone they knew and shared their prosperity and love.  And then one day, Castro arrived and a new chapter in
Marta’s family life exploded.  Marta was a young girl and yet she would leave that childhood behind to emancipate her family to the United States.  Besides the seizure of property, the deaths at the “paredon”, the wall and the money change, Castro made children over 5 the property of the government as well.

As I listened to Marta, she became the young girl again and her eyes burned with indignation at the loss of her family’s business, the powerlessness of those that had carried such authority in her life, and the fear and violence that had replaced paradise.  This bit of pride and self-esteem carried her to United States at the young age of 15 when girls should be celebrating their “Quince” (sweet 15) parties and thinking of nothing but childhood fun, and what dress to wear.  Marta, then Little Marta, spent the next 15 years working in factories to get her family to safety.  Much tragedy and loss ensued.  But after many years, Marta succeeded and the family arrived and was housed again with gardens of fruit trees.

Marta has always worked to maintain the traditions of her family.  She has worked hard, made sure that no one under her care went without, put heaps of food and plenty on the table, and left the door open to anyone in need.  But I know she has always missed the paradise of her youth before Castro.  I have heard Marta wonder aloud what it would be like to dance again in the beauty of Cuba without the fear, and the powerlessness and violence.  I think she wonders about her own mama who has lived into her nineties here in the U.S., will Marta ever be able to show Alsina the old fruit trees in the gardens of her homeland?

Castro has stepped down and his brother remains.  I think today about what that means for Marta’s Cuba.
Gratefully yours, Cat Wayland

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