El Amor, La Caña y el Mar : The Mariel Boatlift the story of the Capote family from La CUJAE Continuing series.

My Papi Hector L. Capote soon became disappointed with how Cubans were treated by the government in Habana and told his boss about human rights violations he was seeing. His boss told him, “Capote do what I say and don’t look at anything else.” My Mami told me she would ask Papi “what's wrong?” she would see him sad and conflicted, and he says to her “I can not take it anymore the things I am seeing. The names people are calling each other, and the government is encouraging it all.” What did Dad see? Well in Cuba you have a committee called CDR (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution) in all the neighborhoods they have such a committee. They have meetings every month or so, and more importantly, they keep an eye when someone is “unrevolutionary.” So when someone hears that a family is leaving for the Port of Mariel, they tell the local CDR. They then organize people and do a protest at the house of the family going or wanting to go. Then they would throw eggs and sometimes frozen they would become hard as a rock also they would chant Gusanos(Worms) and Escoria(Scum) and chase families down the streets. Countless of Cubans families were beaten and some deaths accorded while the police did nothing to protect the people wanting to leave. Soldiers at the Embassy would beat people trying to get into the embassy.

My Papi tells the story of one day after the embassy escape of many Cubans. He and another man an engineer named Tony were guarding the streets by his job on 5th street and 42the embassy was by 5th and 20th something. He saw an old man coming by him been followed by around 300 people the old man was running and threw himself at my Papi. The old man said kill me before all those people do my Papi said take easy I am not going to kill you or either is those people they are not going to touch you. When they got close my Papi told the crowd however gets close will have to die with me. And Tony said the same thing to the crowd. My Papi told them you can not hit someone because they want to leave. So the crowd dispersed and Papi took the old man to the bus station. The old man took the bus and went home.

Papi also tells the story of a young man an engineer that wanted to leave and had a permission slip from the government. Papi had asked the young man you came from the embassy and he answered yes and I am an engineer. Papi asked to see the slip out of curiosity of what one looks like. Then some 12-13 yr old kids tried to take the slip from Papi and my Papi told them kid get lost or I am going to kick so hard in the ass that you will get to Miami before all these people in Mariel. The kids wanted to take it to rip up the slip. I gave it back to the young man and the kids followed him so I went with him to the bus so they would not touch him. The young man said I will never forget what you did my Papi told him I do not do it for you to remember. And that is what made Papi start to change. My Papi thought I am revolutionary but if another one of these things happens and my kids want to leave the country and one of these acts of violence happens to them I will have to kill a general.

Then on Apr. 9 1980: Andean Pact ministers ask other nations to accept some refugees from the embassy. Followed by Apr. 11 1980 President Jimmy Carter announces the U.S. will accept up to 3,500 refugees, by provisions in the Refugee Act. Next on Apr. 13 1980: Costa Rica offers San Jose as a staging area for refugee resettlement. Also on Apr. 16 1980: Evacuation flights to Costa Rica begin. Castro suspends flights two days later.

And then a scary moment for those in the embassy on Apr. 19 1980: An estimated one million Cubans march past the US Interest Section as the focal point of an island-wide series of anti-US demonstrations. Dad was a part of that march per his job at the university. In Miami, exile Napoleon Vilaboa readies a flotilla of 42 boats to bring back refugees. And the moment a lot of Cubans were waiting for Apr. 20 1980: Castro announces he will open the port of Mariel for exiles to pick up relatives who want to leave the island.