Reemberto Rodriguez and Geraldina Dominguez
Cuba
“[T]he Cuban diaspora is perhaps the most complex of all Latino sagas.”
~Juan Gonzalez (Harvest of Empire, 2000)
~Juan Gonzalez (Harvest of Empire, 2000)
The 1959 Cuban revolution drastically changed the island nation’s society. The Marxist-Leninist policies catalyzed tremendous waves of emigration, and during the decade that followed, the United States welcomed more than 300,000 Cuban exiles. In subsequent decades the U.S. kept the doors open for Cubans, and provided them with a variety of assistance programs, including free English courses, enhanced access to healthcare and nutrition, scholarships and low-interest loans. Reemberto Rodriguez and Geraldina Dominguez, Cuban children who did not know each other then, were among the second wave of “special refugees,” who fled Cuba in the mid-to-late 60’s. Their stories began with the dangers and challenges generated by the conflict of Fidel Castro’s revolution. Eventually their stories intersect and become a love story when they meet as young adults, and almost fifty years later circle back to their homeland with a return journey to Cuba.
Reemberto Rodriguez
When he was a child, Reemberto’s family lived in the countryside near the Bay of Pigs on the south side of the island. His early childhood memories are shaped by the revolution and Cold War events. As is often the case with families during troubled political times, the revolution divided the Rodriguez family into those opposing Castro and those supporting his cause. In 1961, there was an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Castro and replace him with a non-communist leader. Cubans, 1,400 strong and supported by the U.S., invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. In the aftermath, Castro’s regime imprisoned Reemberto’s uncle for a role in the attempted overthrow. He remained in prison for many years.
Reemberto’s family also had strong ties to America. His mother, a U.S. citizen, was born in New Orleans where her family, like many others, moved in search of fortune in the sugar industry in the 1920s, but returned to Cuba during the Depression. The close historical, cultural, economic and family ties between New Orleans and Cuba proved to be prophetic when Reemberto left Cuba.
Reemberto was only nine and half years old when his grandparents took him on the last flight out of Cuba for U.S. citizens in December 1966, from Havana to New Orleans. Because his older brother, serving in the military, could not leave Cuba, Reemberto’s parents stayed behind. Their reunion came nearly fifteen years later. In the meantime, another uncle of Reemberto, an anesthesiologist, and his aunt, both U.S. citizens, raised him in the countryside of Georgia. Reemberto’s uncle and aunt had settled there as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s program to place doctors in rural America.
Above left: Reemberto at 2 years old (1959) wears the penguin costume made by his mother who continued to sew after moving to the US. The picture was taken by Japon, the only photographer in the small town of Real Campiña. Photo from the Rodriguez family archive.
Below left: This picture, a Rodriguez family classic, was taken in Real Campiña only a couple of years after the Revolution when Reemberto was three and a half years old. Reemberto (center) is surrounded by his brothers Rafael and Lino and his cousins Ibrahim and Chuchi. They are wearing the uniforms of a Havana team, the Almandares. Photo from the Rodriguez family archive.
During the Civil Rights era of the late 1960s and 1970s, Reemberto became acculturated to life in the US while living in a rural town in Georgia. He listened to the Allman Brothers and Gladys Knight and the Pips, and embraced the culture of the deep South. From his Cuban upbringing, he had different perspectives on race and challenged accepted ideas about social status. At one point during middle school, when he could not yet speak English, the principal called him into his office to let him know that he could not sit with the Black students during lunch, an event that made a deep impression on Reemberto because he had already made a friend, Glenn, who was African American. Later, he attended Henry County High School the first year it was integrated.
“…in many ways, I had to learn how all the racial stuff works. Because now, mind you, Cuba, like every Latin American country, has racism galore. But it's a different type than the Deep South racism. So I grew up in the Deep South in that environment…I really despise it when people caricature the South as racist without understanding the complexities of it.”
In college, Reemberto studied to become an architect and urban planner, and it was then that he met his future wife Geraldina Dominguez. Geraldina was born in Camagϋey, Cuba, eighteen months after the Cuban revolution. Her childhood stories in Havana reflect the tense and austere times of the post-revolutionary years. Although she fondly remembers living with her extended family, her family, like Reemberto’s, was also divided by the revolution. Her memories include the discomforts of food rationing, standing in lines for bread, and seeing her father eat low quality food. Putting the situation in a positive light, Geraldina says that the poor food and its rationing have made Cubans "well known for being ingenious and making do.”
Geraldina describes how and why her family left Cuba. Click arrow at right for transcription.
"And so right after the... [in] Cuba, when Fidel takes power... My dad was a judge in Cuba. And it became quite clear to him that he just could not stay there. So he resigned his--being a judge, and his whole profession and started to try to leave. It took us quite a number of years to do that, and we had to leave in a different kind of way. My sister, the one that was already here [in America], brought us over, but we had to come through Spain. So we lived in Spain for nine months and then were able to come, and enter into the U.S. So it was again, because of the political situation, it became... my dad just would have died there if he had stayed. They really gave him hell, to try to get out.
Geraldina Dominguez
Geraldina was just eight years old when her family fled Cuba on a KLM flight to Spain where they spent nine months before moving to the U.S. The family first tried to settle in Muncie, Indiana, but her father could not find work so they moved to Atlanta where the extended family helped her father find a job. In Atlanta, Geraldina continued to learn English and U.S. culture; as she started third grade she had a hard year of adjustment. She learned English without ESL classes, at the time they did not exist in Georgia, and demonstrated how children can relatively easily take on other languages and cultures to become multilingual and multicultural. While the other children in her class did not know where Cuba was and asked silly stereotypical questions, Geraldina remembers that people were kind, especially the African American community who embraced her family the most. She found it natural to have friends of all races and remembers fondly how one of her Black friends loved to brush her long hair.
Above: Geraldina in Havana in 1965.
Photos from the Dominguez family archive.
Geraldina’s parents, Mario Julian Dominguez Vizcaino and Geraldina Varela Ramirez de Dominguez at a New Year’s celebration in Havana, Cuba 1957. Photo from the Dominguez family archive.
At right:
While Nancy was in the US, her mother wrote to her on Mother’s Day and said:
Mi Nancy, sólo faltas tu para que en esta foto tomada el “Día de las Madres” mi corazón y mis brazos estuvieran llenos de lo que representa mi vida entera; mis tres hijos. Mil besos de tus hermanitos y tu mamá. mayo 14 1961 Habana
My Nancy, in this photo from Mother’s Day, only you are missing so that my heart and arms would be filled with the meaning of my whole life; my three children. One thousand kisses from your sister and brother and your mom. May 14, 1961 Havana
Above: Nancy and Geraldina in Havana, 1965.
After Castro’s rise to power, Geraldina’s older sister Nancy was sent to the United States along with many other children, similar to the Pedro Pan program (1960-1962). This program sent more than 14,000 Cuban children to the U.S. to keep them safe, especially the children of parents who were fighting the new regime underground. Nancy left Cuba in 1961 and was reunited with her family eight years later. Photo from the Dominguez family archive.
Geraldina in her mother's lap, with sister Nancy on the right.
Finding a Family
Reemberto loved the disco scene in the late 1970s, when Atlanta’s clubs rocked the dance floors with music from the Village People, the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and Saturday Night Fever, and platform shoes reigned. The disco atmosphere welcomed all to an integrated and diverse party for Black, White, gay, poor, and rich fans . During one night out, Reemberto spotted a young lady he knew had to be Cuban and asked her to dance.
Reemberto tells the story of meeting Geraldina in Atlanta in the 1970s. Click arrow at right for transcription.
In 1978-- I admit it, I like all kinds of music I said earlier, and I love disco music, totally love disco music. So I go to the disco... and I see this young lady and I say, "Oh, she must be Cuban. She has to be Cuban." I asked her to get on the dance floor with me, and she said yes, so we danced the night away. As part of the introductions I tell her that I'm a senior, and she said that she's a senior also! We knew each other then for the next few weeks, but it wasn't until about a month later that I realized... I was a senior in college, but she was a senior in high school. So, [to Geraldina] did I lie?
Geraldina: "No, I didn't lie either!"
Soon Geraldina and Reemberto married, completed their college degrees and had a son. Reemberto studied architecture and urban planning, and Geraldina earned her Ph.D. in molecular virology. Eventually their second son was born and they became a family of four living in Atlanta.
In the summer of 2004, in what the couple describe as a mid-life crisis decision, Geraldina and Reemberto moved to Silver Spring, Maryland. They recall stumbling across an “amazing Latino community” that was predominantly Salvadoran among a larger international crowd. They decided they could thrive in Montgomery County and they did; and contributed generously to the community.
Reemberto talks about moving to Silver Spring and the community atmosphere that appealed to them. Click arrow at right for transcription.
Silver Spring, to us, we came up this way from Atlanta, Georgia because we basically had a mid-life crisis. It was wonderful that it hit us both at the same time. We ended up here in the summer of 2004, in this house, where we thought we were going to be for a few months and then move somewhere else. But, we love it. This is our community. We've stumbled across an amazing Latino community, predominantly Salvadoran, and I mentioned our Ethiopian community and friends, and people from all over. It is so cool to go to Veterans Plaza, or walk around Takoma Park, or at Sligo Golf Course, when they have the little festivals or concerts there, and you see people from everywhere! We love to walk, and (walk our dog every day for two hours) we run across people from everywhere. The intentional diversity of Silver Spring is something we've grown to love.
Geraldina took a position at the National Cancer Institute as an International Project Officer in the Office of International Affairs, and in 2005 she accepted a Program Director position in the Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy (OHAM). Currently, she serves as the Director of the AIDS Malignancy Program in OHAM, playing a major role in developing and managing HIV and AIDS malignancy initiatives, focusing on Africa.
Reemberto took on many roles after moving to Maryland, including director of the Silver Spring Regional Center where he was known as the “Mayor” of Silver Spring. He also worked at NeighborWorks America, an organization where he developed training programs for community organizers. Today, Reemberto teaches at the University of Maryland in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Reemberto with University of Maryland architecture students in Havana, December 2023.
In 2016, the Obama administration relaxed travel restrictions to Cuba, allowing “people to people” and educational trips as well as easing the use of American dollars in exchanges. With the changes, the family was able to return to Cuba, landing there 49 years to the date of when Reemberto had left. More recently, Reemberto leads a study-abroad course for the University of Maryland in Havana, teaching a new generation about Cuban history, historic preservation and the meaning of place. Reemberto’s story comes full circle as he regularly returns to the island nation where he was born to accompany the Cuban people and join others in leading philanthropic projects.
Today, Montgomery County has become Reemberto’s and Geraldina’s place, a place where they raised two sons and eventually became the patriarch and matriarch of a loving extended family with two wonderful daughters-in-law and three grandchildren.
Reemberto and Geraldina in their Silver Spring home. March, 2023. Photograph by Maria Sprehn.