Moreda

=Angela Moreda =

Podcast
media type="custom" key="12456996"

BIOGRAPHICAL/GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE
 Angela moved to America with her almost two year old son, Alex, and her husband. Her parents, her husband’s mother, and a few of their cousins moved later. They immigrated from Cuba to America on January 1, 1962. They immigrated because Castro was taking two- year-olds months before they left for America. Alex was almost two, and they didn’t want their child to be taken. Also, the government controlled everything. They controlled what people did, where they went, and what they ate. They met a friend in Miami, Florida when they arrived in America. They chose to stay in Miami. Later in her life she had three more children, all boys. Her oldest son, Alex, is my father. After Hurricane Andrew, Angela and her mother were picked up by my parents and my oldest brother. Angela and her mother moved in with my parents. Family is something that is greatly valued in Cuba. Today she lives in North Carolina near her son, Leo, and his family. During the time that they immigrated, many people were trying to get out of Cuba any way they could. Many people built rafts to travel to America on, most did not make it.

 Cuba is a communist country. Cuba has provinces not states. Cuba has a tropical climate. It is the largest country in the Caribbean. During the Cold War, Castro allowed the Soviet Union to keep nuclear warheads in Cuba, this later lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis happened 10 months after Angela moved. = = =Creative Writing =

//“I [will] never forget this moment. [the plane ride to America]//

by Maggie Moreda
We board the PanAm, and take our seats. All is well and good, until the militia arrives.

“Who is Alex Moreda?” one man asks. “The baby,” I simply say.

“He must go. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Now. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">He is passenger 101. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">We only let 100.”

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">What will I do? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">He is just a baby. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">He will sit in mine or his Daddy’s lap. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">He does not take up a seat.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">“I insist he gets off.” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">My whole body is shaking, trembling. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Alex is squirming like a squid in my arms.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">A man comes out from the front of the plane. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">It looks like he holds authority. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">He is American.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">“No passenger is getting off this plane,” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">the man from the front says in a voice big, and booming.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">“He is passenger 101, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">he must get off.”

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">“You do not put your feet here. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Go down immediately, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">because I close the door.”

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Nana what is your full name?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: My full name? Angela Moreda.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What country did you immigrate form?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Cuba.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What was your life like in Cuba?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: I lived good in Cuba. I lived good because we work only 7 to 11 and 2 to 5. We <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">have plenty time to work the movie and time to spend with families and friends and everything.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What were your friends like?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: The friends were our age and friends of my mom and family.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What were your hobbies?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: My hobbies is crafts, like now.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What kind of crafts?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: What I do with the craft?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Yes.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Make flower arrangement.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Did you go to school?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Yes.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What was school like?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: It was very good very big school the 3rd best school in Cuba.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What kinds of games did you play as a kid?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: In the school?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Yeah.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Basketball, volleyball, kickball, and softball.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What was your family like?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: My family was very friendly we living [all the family] in two blocks, all 11 member in two blocks

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What was the government like in Cuba?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Now or then?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: When you lived there.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Vary bad.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Can you explain that a little bit more?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Yes we have 3 problems we don’t have for the baby they want to take the take him when he was two years old. That’s what the reason we want to come here because Alex was two years old when we came here. We didn’t have food, we didn’t have medicine, we didn’t have anything in Cuba we don’t.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Why?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Because the government controlled everything including the medicine. If you want to move some of your property to a friends house or trunk you couldn’t do it. If you go outside with a bag, the people that take care of the block go to you and say what do you have in this bag because you can’t carry anything and you can’t give food to any friend or any people that are sick or needy

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: The government was kind of controlling.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Yeah controlling everything.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What were the major sports you watched and played?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: In Cuba?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Yes.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Well, baseball. But the problem is the government. The government controlled the players. They don’t let them go home. They make them stay in some place separate from family. It is the same with the kids. When kids are in 2nd or 3rd grade Cuba have no states like here, but 6 provinces. If you live in Havana, the capital, your kids live in another place so they don’t see you. And sometimes the government sends them to Russia. You don’t see the kids. Sometimes when they come back to Cuba, they come to marry and you don’t see your kids.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What is the major religion in the county?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: The Catholic. But you can’t go to the church. You can’t go to any place.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What was the weather like?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: The weather? Very nice, the weather was very good because it is not so cold. Not cold. You can go to different place because the weather is good it is not so hot. You can go to the beach because we have a beautiful beach. Beach was… before the government now you can go to the beach and it doesn’t cost a penny. You can to the beach that we have. We have a club. We have a bus that running to the beach, and to the beach to the capital. You can go and play and on the beach and you have a lock(er) over there that you put all of the things and the people take care of your clothes and cleaning on the weekend and put in your locker and everything and it costs you 10 dollars a month.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">And the medicine is something that is so good. Because you pay one dollar a month and you have all the medicine that you need. The surgery, the tests. Everything you need for one dollar a month.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What languages were spoken in Cuba?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Spanish.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Were there any others?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Now? Russian, Korean, Chinese. Every… a lot of languages now.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What kind of music did you listen to?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: I? Spanish music and Mexican music and Cuban folkloric music.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What was the process of becoming an American citizen like?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Well the process is very, so (laughs) hard and sometimes is a problem. You need to take a friend here that take you an invitation to visit the family here. And okay. As soon as you go and present the paper, seethe paper in the embassy or something you need to … If you work and your husband work, you both lost the work. If for three month or we stay 910 day from work. If you want that I tell you what happened with your dad.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Mmm

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: It was very very hard. Because when we present our papers. Your dad don’t have two years. The have in my passport. They have … They don’t need a ticket. They don’t need a fare. But they take two years old before we left. Three months before. And we need to make passport, we need to call here and asking for a fare for the plane and everything. And we coming from PaAm on the flight. Only the plane have 200 or more seats but the government let only 100 but your dad adding to the list is 101. When we arrive to go to the plane, the, I know that some people from the plane, “I want you all on the steps. I don’t want anyone on the floor. All you up.” We don’t know why. As soon as we sit, one of the militia, from the government coming and say, “who is Alex Moreda?” And we say it is the baby. They can’t go. Because It is the passenger 101. And we don’t let them go 101 we need only 100. But the captain of the plane say NO, you can’t move here any person.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Ah, okay. We know if he they go, if they stay here or he need to stay here. He can’t go. But after that coming another person, three more persons. But the plane is American plane. And they wait with American flag on the steps and say, “You don’t put your feet here. Go down immediately because I close the door. You don’t move from here. Okay.”

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">They call the to the embassy, the American Embassy, what is the problem. And I don’t know what happened but we immediately fly, we fly. But oh my G-d, but this moment was terrible. We say, why he take if he sit in my lap or his daddy’s lap. He don’t take any seat because he is so small. I was so… I never forget this moment. I never forget this moment. We fly from Cuba to here January 1, 1962.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: So you start off the new year.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">(nods)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Did you have any other trouble becoming a citizen once you were here?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: No. We have perfect, here we have good treatment. As soon as we arrive we have 100 dollar and food. Until one of us start to work. But it is perfect. The Cubans have a … something that instead of we need to wait 5 year for make a residence. We only need to wait three year. And after another three year we are American citizen. We are American citizen in October of 1968.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: So you were… I think Dad said he became a citizen when he was 7. (leans forward as she didn’t understand) Dad said he became a citizen when you did when he was 7?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Yes. Six or seven. Yea. We need to sign the… We need to sign because he don’t know how to write. He put Alex Moread.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What was the… I am trying to figure out how to word this…

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: What was the most breathtaking moment when you got here.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: The moment when we be here? Would be we stay alone. Because all of the men when we arrive here they go to some place to asking how they doing in Cuba, where they live. They spend one day or a day and a half. And we don’t have any family here only friend. And I need to do go friends house to spend this night. Then after, another problem was to find a place we living. Because when go with the kids, they says kids no, dogs yes but kids no. They don’t like the kids they don’t like t to rent the house for kids. And after I stay alone all the day because Joe go to work… to try to find some work. Try find. They serve cookie sand crackers and fabrics and they go to the different place out of Miami to try to sell and I spend the day alone with Alex. And I need to go in the bus or walk to the store to everything I need to be alone with him.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Where did you live when you first got here?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Where did you live, like what city, state?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: In Miami, Miami, close to the downtown Miami.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Did you know English when you got here?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: I know English because when I have in the high school, the high school I went for secretary and worked half in English and half in Spanish. But it was theoric. Theoric [theory] okay but no the… but I need to try. And now I speak English in the house with Missy but with Leo and the kids I speak we speak Spanish because Matthew wants to take Spanish in the high school and he is good.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Is there anything that reminds you of home?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Something that remind my home? Everything remind my home. Sometime I remember my home where is the house, where is this. But now the house is completely different. Living one of the… sister or my or one of my cousins and the wife and the sister. But they… The house is a mess, it is destroyed. They cant fix it.. They don’t have any material to fix it. The house is has 78, the house has 75 years old. And needs to continue to fix this and that. No. They can’t do it. When I come here, everything we find here, we have… the same buses they have here are running in Cuba. The food is the same. And I don’t miss this life, I don’t miss… The problem is, that is very hard, very sad that you don’t see more your family. Your family die, you don’t see. Your family sick, you don’t see. You don’t more your family.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: So the rest of your family didn’t move to America?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: No. I have only my mom, my dad, my mother-in-law, and one aunt, and my uncle, my aunt and my cousin. And two more cousins and one other. The rest of my family, I don’t see more.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Have you ever visited Cuba?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: No.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Do you wish you have or do you want to?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Nope. I don’t want to visit Cuba because very body that go to Cuba is very sad Cuba look like you are destroyed. The house. The… they when the Cuba begin, the street is, have one way, one way two way and now the wall they put wood and put wood to one side to the other. Because the wall come down. They put wood because it take a little more… that was so terrible. Everyone who go to Cuba cry and cry and cry when they come back. Because they have destroy all their things. If the street has a hole they don’t have anything to fix the hole. And in Cuba, the sugarcane that was the most important thing that we produce in Cuba. Now we can’t produce sugar the, the sugar that have in Cuba now, the people that told me that they go to Cuba saw, that is black, they need to rinse the sugar so can use it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: How has your life changed? Like Your lifestyle from…

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: From here? Oh yea, it changed a lot. Because It different. Time to Work. The Time to… the place you go. It changed. I like it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> It changed because in Cuba we live, so family so close. And here you know, family one is living one over here the other living over there. But in Cuba all the family living close and sometimes the people marry and the house is big and they stay in the same house and but this was a change and we don’t’ find any family here and it was a change. But for the other things, it was all the same. Because Cuba is the same like United States practical because when you have a new car here, they go to Cuba. They have cruise, cruiser that coming every three or four times in a week and the flight three or four flight in a day. And we have living the same that here. The same. The clothes the shoes and everything go to here to Cuba. We use in Cuba the same. We have the store that are American stores in Cuba. We have the Sears. We have The Woolworth. Have the stores that are the same here.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: So do you think that moving was good?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Yes. Is good because we can have freedom. In Cuba we do not have freedom. You can’t talk (muttering). I have a lot of American magazine that we had to burn because somebody take me believe me go to jail… In Cuba, if you don’t have the same idea as the government, you go to jail. (mumbling) Not nice. Everybody need to have different idea. Freedom to talk freedom for buy things. And the food is very difficult because when we are there we have. With your dad we have a gallon of milk for two week. And the milk that your daddy can’t drink because it has a terrible taste. And I need to find with a friend or something and one giving one can of evaporated milk or one or sometimes we change “I need a baked potato can you change me for rice,” but if the government catch you, you go to jail.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: So you had to keep it quiet.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Quiet. No quiet. Sometime you go to house and put it in front of house in pot or something like that and go out. Cuz it is so so terrible.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Is the food different here than in Cuba.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: In Cuba, when we arrive… the food is the same. The same food that we have here, when I arrive we have in Cuba before. And with the time, they have more Latin food. Now, now we have a lot of Latin food in North Carolina. And when I arrive to North Carolina sometime some food I take from Miami but now I don’t need to take any from Miami because we have it here a lot of food.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: I think we are done. Thank you so much.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Angela: Any time, Margaret, you need something for the school. With Leo and the computer we can do it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Maggie: Thank you so much.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">ANALYSIS
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">In class we talked about the discrimination that some immigrants go through. We also talked about ethnic neighborhoods. Angela and her family moved to Miami. Miami, even today, has ethnic neighborhoods. They were surrounded with Cubans, like themselves, escaping Castro. Angela wasn’t discriminated against as much as other immigrants, because she was around people like her. In class we looked at political cartoons. Those cartoons put down immigrants from different countries. As we looked at the cartoons I didn't see any pertaining to Cuba or Cubans. I believe Angela was very lucky, because she didn't have to deal with a lot of discrimination.