Clara: My name is Clara Castillo when I was single, now that I got married my name is Clara Espinosa. I was born in 1935, I’m turning 90 years old in two weeks, and I’m currently living in Miami.

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Vale: My name is Valentina Sumner, I’m Clara Espinosa’s granddaughter, and I live in Miami. The First question I will ask is : When did you realize you had to leave your country?

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Clara: Well, the first time, I was really young when the revolution started of Fidel Castro. Some time passed and I had a son named Pedro, who is currently sixty-two years old, I then decided once he turned around five years old that we had to leave Cuba because he had no future. I suffered many hardships in Cuba and that why I made the decision, and I don’t regret it. I went through Mexico because my father was Mexican, he dies with 103 years of age in Cuba, so I made the decision to leave through Mexico. From Mexico I went through the border, around 1966, I don’t remember the date at the moment. I went by the border and with time I became a citizen who lives in Miami

 

Vale: What reaction did your family and friend have when you made your decision to leave Cuba?

 

Clara: My friends and family thought I was doing a positive thing, because staying in Cuba, with all the hardships me and my son faced, for him not to have a future, constant famine, and in the past sixty- something years there has been no improvement. Well, thank God now I’m here in Miami, with my family *hahaha* I have two beautiful granddaughters, and life. My daughter is an amazing working woman and super close with the family. So, in these moments I am beyond happy, thank God, and I hope God continues to help and protect me. 

 

Vale: How was is to leave you culture, your family, and friend when you decided to come to the U.S.A.?

 

Clara: My culture stays the same, I’m still Cuban, I love Cuban coffee, and my music. So, that is something I will forever have in my heart because I love my “land." But this is also my land that I love dearly. My friends, with time, also immigrated and we’ve seen reconnected in this free land looking back at our memories in Cuba.

 

Vale: I have two more questions for you for this part of the interview, okay? Okay, do you have any vivid memories of you last days in Cuba?

 

Clara: I have beautiful memories of my childhood, but I remember, the most sad was when I got on the plane to Mexico. I don’t remember how long the flight was, two, three hours crying. With time I was thinking about the Cuban music, when I listened to them I cried. But everything has a time, you recover from the memories. Well, in present day I feel grateful for the land that they have given me and the other thing is staying with the memories. 

 

Vale: The last question is, if you could have gone back to the moment right before you left, would you have done it differently?

 

Clara: Done something different from where?

 

Vale: From Cuba to Mexico, actually, from Mexico to the United States.

 

Clara: Well, the time I spent in Mexico was a sad time because I didn’t have a future, and I didn’t know what was going to happen, eh, my life, and with the time I was able to go to the boarder. At first, they rejected me and the sent me back to Mexico and the second time I made it. I had my sister, who was currently living in the United States, waiting for me and accepted me with a lot of love until I was ready to go on my journey.