I walk a couple of miles to work everyday and I love it, its my favorite time of day. In the hour that it takes me, I used to listen to Serial or other random podcasts. But this morning, on my walk, I called my grandmother. At first we had the normal mundane conversation we usually have during our phone chats; we talked about weather and about how her new iPhone somehow only vibrates and doesnt ring or have ringtones. (I agreed with her that something must be wrong with the phone to avoid having to try to walk her through it) But then, somehow, the conversation led to Cuba, where shes from. I realized I hadnt asked her about the latest news and what her opinion was, but after asking today, I now know her stance, which is basically: Im not packing my bags to go visit anytime soon. I sympathized and told her I couldnt imagine how bizarre it would be for her to go back, 50 years later, with all thats changed since. She agreed and noted that she didnt even remember the address of the house she and my grandfather had built, and how she hadnt been there since Castro and his regime took it over. It was at this point in the conversation I realized I had NO IDEA exactly how any of that went down. I always knew my family left behind a great life in Cuba when Castro came to power, and I knew my grandfather was thrown in prison for political reasons, and that he later escaped and my family moved to the US to start over. Ive even seen the old black and white photos; pictures of my moms huge 1st birthday party, pictures of my grandparents dressed up at fancy events or in fancy cars, pictures of political rallies with people holding posters that had my grandfathers face on them. Ive seen all of this and never once really asked for the details. So today, I started asking questions, I realized I want to know, and I asked my grandma to tell me all about it. She told me about their huge avocado farm just outside of Havana, and how they planned to retire and eventually live off of the farm. She talked about trying to maintain the new house once my grandfather was thrown into jail, and how every morning shed drop my mother and aunt (both small children at the time) off at her mothers house, so she could go visit my grandfather in prison. She explained how the new government eventually took over the house, and how she was warned by the manager of their farm who called her and said The government was just here at the farm, theyre coming to your house next. That night she called a private moving company and had them move every single item and piece of furniture out of the house. Lauren, she told me, I said, they can take my house, but I wont let them have anything else, not even the light bulbs. She even took the light bulbs, every single one. After that night she continued to move all of her stuff from place to place, hiding it from the government as they continued to take over buildings. She still owns some of the furniture to this day, my mother and aunts have some of it too. I hated to hang up when I finally got to work, I wanted to stay on the phone all day and hear all of my grandmothers stories, but I told her I had to go and that Id call her tomorrow because I was dying to hear more. She laughed and said, Ok, well tomorrow Ill tell you the story of how I got your grandfather out of prison. And that was that, we hung up. Im sorry, I know this is a really long rambling post that nobody probably cares about, but my point is, I think I just found the coolest podcast ever.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 03:10:57 +0000
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