Silvia Soler's Struggle in a Communist Country

In her late 60’s, Silvia Soler sits in her comfortable chair and watches Spanish talk shows with a grin on her face. Silvia resides with her dogs in Glendale, California in a small house. Born and raised in Cuba, a country that has gone through much devastation, she gladly talks to me about her time spent there. She is grateful for being so lucky to have left her country at the time when Fidel Castro went into office. At times, she feels pain for the people still living in Cuba because “they’re suffering.” Although she knows she cannot do anything to free her country, she prays everyday for a better Cuba.

Growing up in Cuba, we had very little liberties at all. If you went out, they would have to keep searching you. There would be a person on the corner of every street and they would check if you had a bag. If you did, they would look at you and ask you, “What do you carry in there?” So then you would have the fear of having something bad in there. If you did, then they would take you to prison. That was one liberty of being able to go out but then getting searched. But you couldn’t express yourself like one can here.

We didn’t really have liberties, even our own food that we would buy had to be bought at midnight so that the guards wouldn’t see us. Because the food they gave you was the only food you were allowed to have. They would write down when they gave you food in a small notebook: one pound of meat, one chicken for the young child, etcetera. There was basically not freedom of expression, of anything.

The education was very good. People there got very well educated. They were taught to be prepared for a job. Student were allowed to receive and education. They might have been taught the way the leader wanted them to learn, but they were taught. They were prepared to come to America well educated. I stayed in school until 6^th grade; I had to leave school to help my mom with our family. But nowadays, over there, they are allowed more education than we were. They even have day care, not something we had back then.

If you would say any one thing about or against the government, they would murder you; kill you. Or throw you in jail. You would have the terror of not talking or speaking anything bad. I talked a lot because I protested many times. But I thankfully wasn’t taken to jail.

People would be thrown in jail without a fair trial, they had to do whatever was told and you couldn’t speak against it. If the judge called you guilty, even if you weren’t, then you were guilty under the law. It was like you couldn’t even breathe.

with Castro. With Fidel Castro, everything went downhill as soon as he was in office; he took everything that was ours; our house, our cars, any transportation. He would say that he took from the rich to give to the poor but we did not believe him because he took our everything or else we couldn’t leave the country

The police system was fair to the people but there were still times when if you committed a crime, it was a different story. They weren’t unfair during Bautista’s term. Nowadays, the police would make any little thing a big deal. They’re very unfair; they treat you bad. Through the police is how Castro punished the people.

We used to have different newspapers and magazines. We had a variety of different papers we could read from. But when I left the country, we had about two or something because the freedom of press was no longer there. And those two newspapers said what Castro wanted them to say.

There used to be pictures of the leaders and the men who took part in the war. I remember seeing many pictures of earlier leaders and patriots, the ones who had freed Cuba. There were a lot of different leaders from the Cuban war. But when I left, there were only pictures of him (Fidel Castro) and also of Che Guevara; who was also another leader there.

I felt very sad as I was leaving Cuba; I was leaving all my family and friends, also my street, like my neighborhood along with al my neighbors whom were very close to me. It was sad telling everyone goodbye. I also left my mom at that time and that was very hard to do. One feels that after seven years of waiting to leave the country that when you’re leaving it, it’s sad. When everyone is telling you goodbye and you see the plane depart, you feel something unexplainable. As I looked down from the airplane’s window, it was hard.

When we left, they closed down my house, they searched everything in it, they counted how many change of clothes we had in our suitcases. There was a certain amount of clothes that you were able to carry along with you. You also could not bring any money with you. They would take things away from you if they wanted when you passed through administration. All of my husband’s family came along with me; my husband, my mother in law, my sister in law, my husband’s grandmother, and my son, Tommy. But not my mom, she stayed there and came to America later on.

To be able to come to America, we had to go through a lot of paperwork, a big amount. And you would have to take all the paper to the offices every time. Sometimes, they would send you to go work to be able to go to America, but I wasn’t sent to go work. My husband did go to work, and he fainted because he was a diabetic and he would be in the field, under the burning hot sun, and that wasn’t healthy for him, for anyone. He got sick and only with a doctor’s note was he able to get out of those working conditions.

I would never go back to Cuba. When Fidel Castro leaves and God still gives me good health, maybe I will go back. But with Castro still in office there, no, I’m not going to return to be a prisoner. To go back there is to suffer and I don’t want that kind of suffering.

            Interviewed by Rosa Peña