My Wife's 40 Year Anniversary in the USA

By Chuck Marshall 

The Love of My Life 

  ** My wife has officially been in the United States for 40 years as of last month- May 20- so this blog is dedicated to her and her brother and her mother and her late father for all they endured to be legal immigrants to the United States from the tyrannical government of Fidel Castro's Cuba.  

   Much has been said about immigration this past few years- it has become the biggest political hotpoint of all here in 2025 and it decided the 2024 election to a large extent. This brings an interesting introspect from my personal life because I am married to an immigrant.  My wife came here "legally" in May of 1985, at the age of 12, not speaking a word of English and with parents who were in their 50's.  They had no money and no jobs with only family to help them get a start here. There was no government help.  They were allowed to come here and live legally to start a new life. The rest was up to them.   They arrived with nothing. The communist government of Cuba does not allow anyone who leaves the country to take anything with them because everything is regarded as the property of the state. No clothes. No personal effects. Not even personal pictures. (My wife's brother had to smuggle out pictures when he followed them a couple of years later) You are treated as a traitor and an enemy of the state. Most people leaving Cuba back in the 1980's were found out by the neighbors and had eggs thrown at their house or apartment. My wife remembers being terrified that would happen to her family, but thankfully it never did.  

   So her journey began on a plane from Havana as a consequence of a Reagan - Castro agreement that was terminated by Fidel right after my wife's flight. She loves to tell the story of how the family was sick the day before their flight and her mother suggested they wait another few days, but her father protested and said he felt like they had to take that flight no matter what. His sense of urgency proved to be correct as they would soon find out, hearing on arrival to Miami that theirs was the last flight out of Cuba.  I like to hear her stories of arriving in the United States. "What was the first thing you noticed ?" I ask. "The lights, she answers- so many lights" and "all the American flags" (because the USA was such an enemy of Cuba the American flag was rarely seen and certainly not respected). Their first stop was with her uncle who took them to K-mart to buy basic clothes since they had nothing but the clothes on their backs.  Then they went to Denny's where she said she had never seen so much food at once in her life. She could barely eat half her hamburger (after years of surviving on eggs, milk, mangos and a monthly ration of meat). Her only shoes in Cuba that last year were flip-flops.  There are so many stories I've heard since I first dated her.  I remember our first date was to go to the movies at the Galleria Mall in Ft. Lauderdale.  I was fascinated by her story of Cuba and had a great deal of admiration for her family and all they had overcome in just a few years through work, grit and determination. Her smile through it all grabbed my heart, and here we are together still after 30 years of marriage.  

   I guess you could say my wife's experience under Communism has formed my opinions to a great extent. I was already leaning conservative when we met, but her stories of struggle and the horrors of living under Communism cemented a deep distrust and disgust with Socialism and all the evil that comes with it.  When you live with it, and when you see the pain in the eyes of the one you love, it's not possible to "see both sides" regarding Socialism or Communism.  Socialism is simply Communism "light" with similar tactics and claims.   Communism has proven to be the worst form of government that has ever existed. Since its inception it has destroyed millions of lives and brought down once great nations along with their traditions and beliefs because the Communists ruled these traditions and beliefs to be "decadent" and an enemy of the people. Communism sucks the soul out of a country and out of a person. It turns women into prostitutes to survive. It forces men into theft to prevent starvation. It leaves nothing but takers and no givers. It is a Godless, demonic, satanic way of life that diminishes all people to being victims. What's worse is they cloak themselves as being "benevolent" and "altruistic" and that they are "equalizing the people".  It equalizes the people alright- it makes them all equally poor and equally parasitic.  

  So, I offer up this congratulations to my beautiful wife, the love of my life at 40 years in the United States. (By the way, she has been an American citizen since 1996.)  Thank you Janet for being in my life and thank you for opening my mind to the evils that men are capable of- so much so that I recognize the barbarism behind the "good intentions" that the left claims they have.  As you have put it to me many times so eloquently-- with Communism you are the property of the state. You are not your own person. The socialists supposedly have good intentions to make us all equal, but their naive mindset and the power-hungry needs of their leaders are behind a barbaric path for countries that adopt it to rule.  It erodes us all to being "non-people".  Such a way of life must never be allowed to become established in the United States. Such a philosophy must never be allowed to flourish.  

     Part of me wants to go back in time and remove the pain for my wife. Take away the constant hunger. To stop the fear and lighten the darkness. To smooth out the trouble of a monstrous government that diminished its people to the level of cattle. But after all,  it brought her to me and it has added clarity to my worldview that is such an important part of who I am now. So we want to change the past but we cannot. Our lives are a book being written by God and the inability to go back and “fix” things is probably a good thing

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Christmas in Cuba

By Charles E. "Chuck" Marshall


Merry Christmas to you all, loyal readers !

There is a lot of talk right now in the media about Cuba and the President's decision to establish more normalized relations with the island country to our south.  This topic is more of a personal issue to me since my wife immigrated from Cuba back in 1985, two months shy of her 13th birthday.  The topic of Castro and the Cuban government is frequently the subject of family gatherings such as Christmas and other holidays.  So, I guess you could say I may have more insight than most gringos.

First of all, let me say that it's obvious that since my wife's family fled Cuba with nothing but the clothes on their back that they are not endeared towards the communist government.  That being said, they are also proud of  Cuba's natural beauty, its rich musical heritage and the thriving educated community that it once was before the communists came in and 'fixed" the inequality.  True to all communist track records, they equalized everyone and they are now all equally dirt poor.  

My wife gets upset discussing Cuba because she feels most people don't understand the situation.  She gets frustrated when she remarks to people that she didn't have a Christmas when she was a child and they give her a puzzled face. "They don't understand" she remarks,  There was no Santa Claus, no presents, no feasts, and going to church was allowed but frowned upon.  Sometimes it could land you in jail if you made the wrong remark about Christmas or Christianity.  All power is from the government and any allusion to other ideas- even one of a peaceful savior who taught of love and forgiveness - are not allowed.  Simple minded people don't understand that, and so that's how the vultures  of totalitarianism sink their talons into the heart of freedom of speech and assembly.      Many Americans hear that there is no Democracy or freedom in other countries such as Cuba but they really don't "get" it.  This, to me,  is simply a reflection of lazy parenting and a failed education system.  The strength of our democracy depends on instructing our children regarding the superiority of democracy and the consequences of releasing freedoms to the government.   In most cases, with Cuba being an excellent example, there is no turning back if things don't work out once you've ceded your power as a citizen back to the government in the interest of "equality", "security" or political party.  In this case the communist party, but it is not such a stretch to see how our own political parties here in America have maneuvered the process of governing much to their favor at the expense of fair representation  (as this blog has repeatedly remarked).

All that being said, what about  normalizing relations with Cuba?    This, in my view, is an entirely different question.  I think you have to look at the core issue and try to remove the emotion and incorporate rational thought when it comes to policy towards a foreign nation.  We are not Cuba, we are the United States of America.   Cuba is not going to change on its own.  Some leaders like Senator Marco Rubio (Florida  R) believe we're rewarding the Castro government and the communists.  I believe over the years that our refusal to deal with the Cuban government has morphed into  more of a political football, a football used both here in the US and in Cuba.  The USA's politicians use it to posture for winning Florida in the presidential elections and also as another "us vs them" strategy between the Republicans and the Democrats.  The Cuban dictatorship, on the other hand,  uses it as a scapegoat.... "what is wrong with our country is the fault of the American embargo".  So, in a nutshell., I support a change in policy towards Cuba for the simple fact that what we've been doing for 50 years has not worked.  It only serves to support the cronies on both sides of the Florida straits.  It's not working, so let's try something else.   This is a logical conclusion even without bringing up  the hypocrisy of blocking out Cuba but embracing  China and Vietnam-  two other totalitarian- communist nations with which we are all too happy do business.

In My humble Opinion......


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