Cuban By Accident

By the end of January, 1959, Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces had taken over most of Havana's businesses, nationalizing private companies, stores, banks, etc., in the name of the revolution, on behalf of the Cuban people. My mom was working at a bank as the Director's executive assistant. When the takeover happened, Castro's first Finance Minister ordered that she be transferred to another department, doing so after learning of her Irish, British and Spanish roots, telling her she was "Cuban by accident!"

Although born in Havana, Rita never felt particularly Cuban. She was fluent in English early in her life, sure, but it took the force or impact of the Cuban revolution, and her subsequent exile to Miami, for her to (finally?) feel as if she was, indeed, Cuban. Listen as Rita recounts how her grandparents met -- an Irishman (and former British soldier in Burma, the cop in Chicago) and the daughter of a British man and his Spaniard wife -- and how this merging of anglos influenced her identity before arriving in the U.S. And, of course, what happened after realizing that she would never be returning to Cuba. Things get a bit heavy, so this week's "Who Would You Make a Baby With?" segment came in just in time to go out with a bit of levity. This Episode's choice: Cuban national hero José Martî (aged 30, in his philosopher-poet prime) OR #MeToo Movement-ravaged opera superstar, 80 year-old Plåcido Domingo. Listen!