The tropical palms could not calm the pain or provide shade for the dark corners where families gathered in Cuban society in 1980 and made “the decision” of the only hope they saw in a grey communist “workers paradise” to leave by boat. My families story is about a young couple Hector(Papi) Lazaro Capote Pino age 32 and Ada(Mami) Marina Vargas Santiago age 26 as they told me their son and other memories and research. They had been married since 1972 but were sweethearts since 1968. Most of our family had left Cuba by 1980 during the time of the Mariel Boatlift they had left in the 1960s in what they called “Freedom Flights.” By the late 1970s, over 700,000 refugees had fled Cuba thru Varadero in Matanzas province for the United States.
Out of the seven brothers and sisters of Hector L. Capote only Roberto Capote age 53, Ricardo Capote Corzo age 54, and Delia Margarita Capote age 29 where still in Cuba. Also, his father Ricardo Hernandez Capote left Cuba on Aug 24, 1967, died in Miami in 1972 age 67 (his grave is in Plan Flagler Memorial Park lot L by a tree and trash can ). My Papi's Mother Delia Pino Perdomo died in Cuba in 1974, age 64. In the 1960s Delia and Delia Margarita wanted to leave Cuba and join the rest of the family already at that time in New York. This is where our family started in the U.S.A., but my Papi Hector L. Capote was sent to the UMAP labor camps around 1965-67 for a year and a half he was around 16 yrs old. Military Units to Aid Production or UMAPs (Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción) were agricultural labor camps operated by the Cuban government from November 1965 to July 1968 in the province of Camagüey, but that is another story
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