October 13, 1976

'If Only We Hadn't Given Up Our Guns!'

"Two things turned Cuba into a permanent communist state and prevent any effective opposition, " said Nellie and Lolo, two charming and intelligent refugees from Fidel Castro's totalitarian state.

"First, we gave up our personal guns."

"Then, the government issued food ration books."

"All other oppressions were secondary."

We were having a candle light dinner on the balcony of a Washington, D.  C., apartment tower.  To me, Cuban communism was an academic subject seemingly far away from that symbol of liberty - the National Capitol - gleaming pristine white in the night sky.

Yet, to the two sisters, memories of their former home land were a harrowing yesterday, a disturbing presence in their consciousness.

"At first we welcomed Castro," said Nellie who was then the only woman vice-president of the Cuban banks.

"When he gained control of the country we believed him when he said we should surrender our arms because we did not need guns now that we were a free country.  In our joy of overthrowing Batista (Cuba's prior, corrupt dictator) we rushed to the police stations to give up our guns.

"Today the Cubans have no weapons to actively resist the much worse corruption of Castro, even if they had the will.

"Very soon after that, Castro confiscated all property and bank accounts, instantly reducing all Cubans to the same level of poverty and dependence upon the favor of the communist bureaucrats," said Nellie.

"Every one was given a book of food stamps without which you could not even eat.  If you did not behave as the government officials wished, they would not issue you a new book, and you would have to beg food from friends or starve.

"It was a simple system that kept everyone in line.  You lived from month to month and had no time or will to plan resistance to the loss of personal freedoms."

Even so, Nellie had some part in an organized, passive resistance group.  She is tight lipped about her part in the anti-Castro movement, but recounts the unusual circumstances which prompted her flight from Cuba.

"One day X (name withheld) told us he had been questioned by the police and might be arrested," said Nellie.  "He said that if he was picked up we should all start running because he didn't know how long he could with hold our names under torture.

Very soon, X was arrested.  His relatives said later that he had been burned, cut, and had his eyes gouged out.

Nellie feared the worst but wavered whether to flee; and, if so whether to leave immediately or wait a few days to try and convert some possessions into cash.

Her judgment was immediate flight, but she had to wait an agonizing few hours until the middle of the night when the members of the neighborhood "watchers committee" would be asleep.

At 4 a.m. Nellie and her 79-year-old mother loaded two suitcases into their car and sped toward the U. S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay where Lolo lived with her American husband.  The police arrived only an hour and a half after Nellie's departure.

Nellie managed to avoid all road blocks except the last one near Guantanamo.  There, a peasant soldier was determined to turn her back.

Finally, after a three-hour detainment, Nellie convinced the soldier she was her sister, Lolo, and an American citizen by marriage.  The soldier agreed to go with her to the gate of the U.S. base for identification.

It was desperate gamble that would bring certain arrest if some means of escape could not be found before discovery of her falsehood.

Just 30 yards from the Naval base gate the Cuban soldier ordered Nellie to stop the car so he could smoke a cigarette.  While his head was lowered to a match, Nellie grabbed her mother by the arm and whispered, "Run!"  Before the Cuban guard could unshoulder his sub-machine gun, Nellie and her mother were inside the base - trembling with fear, but safe.

Nellie remained on the base for three years as a political refugee, eventually learning to operate the Navy computer.  When Lolo's husband died the family moved to Washington D. C.; and the former bank vice-president became a teller for the Naval Federal Credit Union.

"We have made new lives for ourselves," said Nellie and Lolo.  We now are American citizens who love this country.  Lolo's children speak, think and act like all other American children their age.  We do not want to go back, but are sad for our former country.  The best brains of Cuba have either fled, as we did, or have been killed or broken."

She pause to gaze at the gleaming white Capitol.

"If only we hadn't given up our guns."

Author: Lindsey Williams