Posted on 08/03/2026 12:59:24 PM PDT by MtnClimber
The sea between Cuba and Florida has been more than a geographic dividing line—it’s been a graveyard for untold lives escaping communism.
On one shore were families who had little more than hope. On the other stood a nation founded 250 years ago on the principle that government derives its just powers from the consent of the people.
That promise endured because the founders understood that declaring liberty was not enough. Liberty had to be protected from those who govern. From that wisdom came the Constitution: divided powers, independent courts, competing branches, lawful elections and rights no temporary majority could take away.
I grew up in Miami and attended school with Cuban children whose families had escaped Castro’s revolution. In the 1960s, Dade County schools saw a huge influx of these students. To make it easier for English-speaking and Spanish-speaking students to talk to one another, there would be about five minutes of Spanish lessons every day over the intercom.
On the playground, the words most of us boys wanted to learn were curse words—we built our language skills up from there. At the time, we saw our new classmates as disadvantaged youth, but in reality, they were often the children of doctors and lawyers who were learning how to rebuild their lives from scratch.
Over the years I watched many of those same children grow into flourishing citizens under America’s democratic government—raising families, building businesses, and contributing to the very freedom their parents had risked everything to reach.
Communism was not classroom theory to them. It had taken their homes, their country and, in some brutal stories, the people they loved.
Some families fled Cuba in small boats and makeshift rafts. Parents rationed water and listened to failing engines, not knowing whether the current carried them toward Florida
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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Starting with the upcoming school year, Florida public schools will have mandatory classes on “The History of Communism”.
The communists evicted my 80 year old gr-grandfather from his home and confiscated the home and his company in 1945. He and his sister got out with their lives, nothing else. They made their way 800 miles west and were destitute. He died five years later.
When I was in HS, senior year was a mandatory Americanism vs. Commmunism class. Everyone had to take it. I wonder why Florida stopped that, and when.
Time for USA to take Cuba, now.
“I wonder why Florida stopped that, and when.”
DeSantis has expanded it. Florida also has a Victims of Communism Day and a corresponding school activity.
For the haunted workers paradise which Cuba is, how could anybody want to leave? The interesting situation is, we have wanna be communist here and I never, never have seen them taken an old Chevy pick up truck and turn it into something that floats, and put a outboard engine on it and motor the 90 miles through shark infested waters to reach the workers paradise of Cuba!
I have seen Cubans do just that in order to escape from the workers paradise of Cuba!
Shortly after the trip we heard back how the antibiotics were first used to save a life. A Cuban fellow had the incredible bad luck to slice his foot open on the propeller blade of a boat headed for America as he climbed in to escape. So the rest of the people on the boat had to leave him behind. He didn't want to be questioned going to the government hospital, so his foot was getting gangrenous before he found help via our contacts.
Thanks for the post, Climber.
I have a good friend who is American-Cuban. I have no reason to doubt his story.
Turns out his daddy was one of the personal pilots of Castro shortly after the revolution. Not for ideological reasons, but financial. Turns out the Elite commies pay well if they trust you.
One day in the early 60s, before Fidel took total control, Daddy surprised his co-pilot on the runway by bringing his wife, daughter, and infant son into the little single-engine airplane warming up.
Dad’s co-pilot was young and single.
Dad stuck a 1911 against the co-pilot’s head. He said, “We’re going to Florida”. The co-pilot said, “Okay”.
Turns out the co-pilot was also looking for a way out of Castro’s Cuba. He needed a friend.
Today, dad is passed. Momma is in her 90s and loves fishing, and the infant son is a successful banker.
I’ve never met a Cuban in the United States that isn’t an absolute Patriot.
My uncle was a minister in West Palm Beach. When we visited them between 1960 and 1966 (estimate), he took us to the boat of one of the church members. It had a hidden compartment for smuggling people out of Cuba.
Thank you.
“I’ve never met a Cuban in the United States that isn’t an absolute Patriot.”
Yes. Same is true for all the Vietnamese people who escaped in the 70s. I had a young Vietnamese engineer working for me around 2000. He vividly remembered escaping on a boat at the end of the war and the boat getting strafed by NVA. He was only 5 or 6 when that happened.
I remember The Mariel boatlift, mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba’s Mariel Harbor to the United States. No one I know sailed from the USA to the Communist paradise of CUBA.
Even the Haitians bypassed the Communist Paradise of CUBA for the USA.
God Bless you for the work you have done.
Seems there are a lot FReepers with Cubano stories. All positive.
Thank you.
People risk everything to escape communist countries.
I heard of a flight like this that left Cuba and was pursued by Cuban Mig’s. The Mig’s shot the single engine plane down.
There were no survivors.
Now tell me the story about how people risk everything to get IN TO communist countries.
Haha. Just kidding. There aren't any.
Who recalls all those stories from the 1960s-70s about all those people trying to get in to the USSR? Making hot air balloons from scraps. Building cars with hidden compartments.
Darn it. There are just more stories about getting OUT of a communist country than getting IN.
Bernie Sanders was the exception.
Spent his honeymoon the the USSR.
Not the only exception. Visited, did not stay.
Many dems/commies have visited Commie countries but don't want to live there. Because it sucks.
(talking to you, Karen Bass and Bernie)
+1
Florida Keys attractions show “boats” used by refugees to escape Cuba. One was made of Styrofoam blocks covered with blue tarps. BTW: They’re still landing in the Keys. Border Patrol vehicles have disappeared.
Today, you can go shopping in the Keys and find employees who speak NO English...!
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