During one evening in May 2000, Henrik Gonzales boarded a boat on the northern shore of Cuba. Under the cover of darkness, the boat pushed off and entered the barren 90-mile stretch of ocean that separated him from the United States, or in his mind, the land of the free.
It was his third attempt. Gonzales and 25 others in the boat made landfall on Plantation Key in southern Florida in the early morning hours. He’s now a Santa Maria resident.
Gonzales’ story is not an unfamiliar one for the hundreds of thousands of other Cubans who’ve escaped the regime of Fidel Castro. In 1959, Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista’s government in a revolution and established a one-party government, spawning an exodus of Cuban citizens to the U.S. for decades to come.
In March, President Barack Obama will visit Cuba, becoming the first U.S. president since 1928 (when Calvin Coolidge was president). It’s the latest development in the thawing of U.S.-Cuba relations, which came in a historic announcement by the countries’ two leaders on Dec. 17, 2014.
Anyone who’s paid attention to this issue knows of the fiery disdain many Cuban Americans have for Fidel Castro. It’s a highly emotional one and particularly polarizing in Cuban politics. Gonzales and another Santa Maria resident, Cecilia Todd, share some of these feelings. They are among the handfuls of Cuban Americans living on the Central Coast.
Upon Obama’s announcement, travel restrictions between the countries were eased (even though it’s still technically illegal for Americans to go there), making it easier for families to connect.
However, Todd, 57, is not taking the bait. She said that Americans going to Cuba are in the same situation as those going to North Korea—she herself hasn’t gone back since leaving her birth country in 1966.
And she won’t be visiting any time soon. Like many people her age, Todd doesn’t believe that things will improve as long as Castro is still in power.
Even after falling sick and handing over power to his brother, Raul, in 2006, many believe that Castro still runs things from behind the scenes.
“I don’t care what anyone says, I will not go because Castro is still in control,” Todd told the Sun. “You still have to watch what you say.”
Todd was referring to the repression of free speech in Cuba, which she said has not improved since Obama’s 2014 announcement. According to Human Rights Watch, the Cuban government “continues to repress dissent and discourage public criticism.”
Besides, Todd said, she probably wouldn’t last very long considering how outspoken she is.
“I tell it like it is,” Todd said. “I’m one of those people who doesn’t take their freedoms for granted.”
Like Gonzales, Todd’s life inside Cuba and her subsequent escape were particularly harrowing. When Castro took over, his agents seized the pharmacy and sugar cane ranch owned by Todd’s family at the time.
Years later, her family was allowed to leave the country after her American uncle paid $20,000 to the Castro government. She remembers agents coming to her house and letting her family take only one suitcase of possessions between all of them, which was confiscated when they got to the airport.
Todd stayed at the airport for two days with no food or water and no bed to sleep in while her mother pleaded with the government to let her father go with the family, although they all eventually arrived in the U.S. together.
Political insecurity followed Todd to her new country. She said she was so afraid that at one point Todd refused to open her door for U.S. Census workers. Todd’s fears were allayed as she made her way through the citizenship process and learned more about U.S. history.
To this day, suspicion toward Obama’s trying to normalize relations with Cuba remains strong.
Todd’s mother, Lilito, believes that Obama’s visit is essentially a smoke screen.
“She thinks Obama and Castro are plotting something,” Todd said, suggesting that the visit might have something to do with giving Guantanamo back to Cuba. “Is Castro going to sell out Cuba or sell out the U.S.?”
Gonzales visited Cuba in 2015 and noticed that some things changed, but not by much. He said that people can have certain items like cell phones, but some essential items are expensive and people are very poor.
It’s a slight improvement from the 1990s, a time in Cuba that Gonzales remembers as desperate. In addition to his occupation as a dentist, Gonzales held numerous jobs—ranging from a soda jerk to working in a cracker factory—in order to survive.
Gonzales, who now owns a family dental practice on Main Street in Santa Maria, said that a dentist in Cuba makes around $10 per month and that a whole chicken costs around $5. He remembers passing out from sheer hunger on two separate occasions.
For as much agriculture as Gonzales remembered Cuba having, he noticed there was virtually none when he visited his home province of Villa Clara last year.
Gonzales and Todd said political freedoms remain as non-existent as the agriculture.
The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba reported that state authorities arrested a group of dissidents during a visit by Pope Francis in September 2015. Then the following month hundreds were arrested following a protest on Human Rights Day, The Guardian reported.
Ultimately, Gonzales said he believes the improving relations will benefit the government more than the people. Despite that, Cubans are a people of hope, he said. There is an expression popular among Cubans that goes, “lo que es para ti, nadie te lo quita,” meaning, “What’s meant for you, no one can take it away.”
“Cuban people always have hope,” Gonzales said.
Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 3, 2016.