Roberto's Journey

Roberto’s journey is one of turmoil, hard work, and success. As I previously mentioned, my grandfather left Cuba in 1959 in light of Fidel Castro’s rise to power. However, leaving Cuba was only the tip of the iceberg. After leaving Havana, he was forced to assimilate to the United States, its culture, problems, and lifestyle. Growing up in Cuba, my grandfather was no A+ student, and in the United States earning his high school diploma became nearly impossible because the Miami public school system did not have the resources at the time for immigrants to transition into school. “We lived in Miami, I was in tenth grade but I got moved back to ninth grade, the educational system in Miami was pretty bad, and I was the first immigrant to come to Miami from Cuba to my high school,” my grandfather explained to me; in fact, to pass English he had to attend summer school every year. Despite the challenges, my grandfather earned his high school diploma in 1960 and proved his determination. However, he had his mind set on greater achievements. In 1961, he moved to Pasadena, California, and attended Pasadena Junior College. He attended PJG for two years before enrolling in UCLA and after four more years of college, he earned a degree in Art Education to become the first college graduate in the entire history of the Fernandez family, defeating all odds stacked against him. During college, he met the love of his life, Mary McAnulty. The following year they got married “which was at the height of the Vietnam War” my grandfather told me. Luckily though, their first son Robert was born in 1969 and saved Roberto from being enlisted. Three years later in 1971, they had their second son Peter and moved to Sunnyvale, California, where Roberto worked in marketing at Hewlett-Packard. Roberto had a very successful career at Hewlett-Packard and earned the opportunity to manage a large marketing division dealing with Fortune 500 clients. So the Fernandez family made a final move to Harvard, Massachusetts. Years later when Robert and Peter had moved out and started their own families, Roberto got the opportunity to run the Graphic and Marketing department at Becker College. Becker College had just recently closed in the fall of 2021, and Roberto now teaches at Clark University and happily lives in Needham, Massachusetts five streets away from his son Robert and a few towns away from his other son Peter.