A Second Life

After 36 years, Cuban refugees celebrate their success as citizens

The Courier-Journal, Wednesday, October 12, 1994

By Christy Thomas Christman

One thing about a car accident four years ago stands out in Amelia Garcia's mind. Not the collision, nor the pain of recovery - but the fact that the accident prevented her from casting an absentee ballot.

It's one of few things that ever stood between Garcia and the ballot box.

A Cuban immigrant who came to the United States 36 years ago, Garcia takes her acquired rights and responsibilities seriously.

Garcia and her family came to the United States to improve their lives. In that respect, she said, their motivation was similar to that of the thousands of Cubans who recently built flimsy boats and took to the seas to escape Cuba's economic crisis.

The difference, said Garcia, is that "many of those leaving today were born into a communist Cuban with nothing and are longing for things that they never had."

Her family had prospered before Fidel Castro came to power, but afterward everything the family members valued - from their freedoms to other possessions - was taken away, she said.

"Literally, with the clothes on our backs, our two children in arms, and little more than a dream of democracy, we came to the United States," said Garcia, who lives in Lake Forest.

"Before Castro's dictatorship, Cuba's quality of life was on a level equal to the United States. And those who worked honestly and diligently were justly rewarded with pay appropriate for their profession," she said.

Garcia's father, a chemist for an oil company in Cuba, and her mother, a home economics teacher and fashion designer, made a comfortable living and were about to provide Garcia with a good education, culminating in her art studies at Havana University.

That was before Castro. "Castro's sense of equality was to make everyone equally poor," she said. "As payment for their hard work and consequent achievements, degreed, industrious professionals were treated like criminals. Communism took away the incentive, the ability and the right to control one's own destiny. We had to leave or become communists."

Garcia; her husband, Rafael Jorge Garcia; and their two children have been naturalized US citizens for many years. Starting from scratch, they have accomplished much since their humble beginnings in the United States.

She is a successful business woman. After several years of working in the health-insurance field and 25 years of working as a bridal consultant and designer, she now owns and operates Amelia's Originals, a full-servide bridal boutique at 10213 Linn Station Road in Plainview that she opened five years ago.

She and her associates specialize in original, hand-crafted headpieces and other bridal accessories and serve as consultants and planners for weddings, receptions and most recently, business meetings and other events. Rafael Garcia is chief of ecology at the Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc. distillery. He's a graduate of Louisiana State, Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities. The Garcias, who believe that education is a key to success, have instilled that value in their children.

Daughter Amelia studied medicine, became a major in the Army medical corps and is now a pediatrician in Arizona.

Their son, Army Reserve Maj. Rafael Jorge Garcia Jr.and a West Point graduate, lives in Lake Forest. He has written a book, "Paladin Zero Six," about his experiences in the Persian Gulf War. The book was recently published by McFarland and Co. Inc.

Recently Amelia and Rafael Garcia demonstrated their patriotism by taking a tour to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-day and pay homage to the soldiers who fought in World War II. "The topic of conversation all throughout Europe was the United States and its positron regarding Cuban refugees," Amelia Garcia said.

Despite her obvious feelings of kinship with the refugees, she believes the best stance the United States can take is to be "consisted with immigration laws, applying them equally to all nations."

"Even though I feel empathy with the refugees as I watch them on the evening news, I realize that the United States should not single out particular groups or make exceptions to the rule for political gain. Just as we had to do three decades ago, the current refugees must follow the rules to become a US citizen and bide their time until they are allowed legitimate passage."

She and her family believe it is worth the wait.