From Batiste to Castro on to America

When you first meet the five-foot woman, you would never guess the fiery spirit she contains As she sits in her Santa Clarita home rambling on about the Cuban foods I had brought her. Berta Ortega grew up in pre-Castro Cuba, and saw the fall of Batiste. She grew up in a small rural farming community, working odd jobs to make ends meet. She came with her family to California in 1970 and has stayed since, happy in her retirement. As you hear the sounds of trucks driving by on the five line street just meters away from her porch, she sits and reminisces of a pleasant time in Cuba were she danced until she could dance no more. Speaking softly as if to herself as she looks on, “I loved to dance, loved to dance. Loved to read, loved to dance. Movies. Quiet life.”

I grew up in Melena Cuba, I lived there for thirty years. When I was little I was always cleaning, yard work, lots of trees, I cooked, did laundry by hand. We used to play jacks, jump rope, skates, we used to rent bicycles and go around the town. We celebrated Christmas Eve, Easter, and valentines, if you were in love. I had lots of dolls during Christmas. Lots of presents no parties.

Melena was like a camp. Like a small little town, very small. The farms were nearby. They grew squash, beans, coffee, and tobacco. I went to a public school. The government provided all the stuff, served crackers and guava, what was really good, it was pretty open then, not like now. It was pretty open. Just before 1962 it got really controlled, but when I was younger it was pretty open. There were pictures of Batiste on the walls, of course. I went to church when I was twelve, I went to the Catholic Church, did communion. I love the beaches there very beautiful. I loved to dance, loved to dance. Loved to read, loved to dance. Movies. Quiet life. There was one movie theater. We watched cowboys, American stuff, John Wayne. They had subtitles to explain. I liked to dance. Salsa, Mambo.

The women hardly worked in Cuba there really wasn’t jobs for women, it was more for men. In different parts of Cuba women had jobs, but not were I was, I was in the country. I worked for the water company. I would walk house to house and collect the bills. Sometimes they wouldn’t pay you for two months! I would get 50 cents, a dollar, 30 to 60 dollars a month. Cheap. Whatever they paid me. There were no unions were I lived, I lived in Melena, an hour from Havana. I even worked at the cemetery, collecting bills.

In 1962 it became more controlled. He took over Fidel just pushed himself in and took over. He did not like churches, he thought he was God. Batiste wasn’t the same but he wasn’t as bad. Castro pushed himself in military wise. There wasn’t any election, Castro was a lawyer, and he pushed himself in and Batiste left. If you were a doctor he took your business, if you owned your house he took it away, cars, houses, everything. When the change happened, you would end up having to work for the government, because you were not allowed to have your own business. This created a black-market. My uncle buy stuff and then turn it around and sell it, it was forbidden but he would do it. If you got caught they would either put you in jail or kill you, there wasn’t any messing around. Fidel was set to kill his brother, and he did. His mother died of great sadness. He let one of his sisters go to Florida.

My uncle was blowing up stuff, totally rebel, we were telling him to stop. If they found him they would kill the whole family. He couldn’t leave Cuba. He never got caught blowing up bridges. He was doing it because he didn’t like the new regime, he was trying to slow it down. But you don’t do that, you don’t go against the military. My husband was so worried because we were trying to leave and his brother was doing stuff that would kill the whole family, he was petrified! And then my sister was a total communist, she was crazy. She would have turned in the whole family! She was always creating problems, she left the family. She wasn’t a good one. It was sad. He would have killed my whole family, if they found out.

I got married when I was 29. I dated my husband for 6 years. Got married when I was 29, had four kids. He was funny. He was 38 when he got married, he loved to gamble. He couldn’t get married because everything he made he gambled. We were only married for 2 years, then we moved from Cuba to California. I filed in 1961 to leave legally cause my sister lived in California, she told us to come, and she helped fix all the paper work, legally. And we were told we could go. We got to the airport and we were told we couldn’t go. They rose it to like a couple 1000 dollars per ticket for us. So we had to go back home and start over. We left three weeks later. But it was under military, machine guns and everything, it was really intense.

My husband was a salesman, a painter, he had a little Cuban market. He sold clothes, cigars. What ever he needed to do. He was always doing something. My husband liked to drive to fast, and there was a street with a big turn, the car spun. When we got back he bought a huuuge Virgin Mary. They built an alter in the living room because we all survived. That was 1970. It was a miracle we weren’t killed, no more speeding!

Interviewed by Ryan Hancock