Dear Ms. Rabago,
Other than the information I provided, I only know that my grandmother, Blanca
Aurora FERNANDEZ y
HERRERA was born in
Santiago de Cuba circa 1905.
Carmen
HERRERA, my grandmother's mother, was probably
Spanish but I do not know any more. I know of her love of
Spanish music and that her accent was not Cuban.
I know that the
FERNANDEZ y
HERRERA family held Spain close to their heart as one of them,
America, probably named so for being the first born in the new land, was married to a hero of the
Spanish Civil War's
Abraham Lincoln Brigade against dictator
Franco. (You know, as in Ernest
Hemingway,
Langston Hughes and
Nicolas Guillén).
During my teenage years I did visit my second cousins whose grandmother was
America FERNANDEZ y
HERRERA. They lived on 86th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and we would play in Central
Park, almost every weekend, we were like first cousins (the BAEZ's). All of us knew little of the
HERRERA story, only that
America, their grandmother as well as Isaura, their mother, were quite diabetic. Their grandfather was radicalized by the
Spanish Civil War and this caused a divorce, as the
FERNANDEZ y HERRERAs are liberal but not communists.
Isaura is knowledgeable regarding textiles and her husband worked with antiques. She possesses great kindness and used to come to Cuba bearing gifts of textiles for the seamstresses in the family. There are several stories to illustrate her sweet personality and infinite patience, but you might think that I exagerate.
We are a good, liberal, patriotic family rent asunder by communism. The
FERNANDEZ y HERRERAs are a very generous and altruistic lot.
My grandmother married into the
DIAZ family of
Santiago de Cuba. One of my father's
PAZOS y
DIAZ cousins, Alicia
PAZOS y
DIAZ de
PAZOS, married a liberal representative from
Oriente, so there was a tradition of liberal political involvement. I read an obituary for Dr. Felipe
PAZOS, an economist, in the
New York Times but I do not even know for sure whether that is him!
The one in the obituary is famous for demonstrating that
Castro was not dead, as some had thought, but alive in the mountains, by arranging an interview with him by a
New York Times reporter.
All this to advise you that at the time of the revolution, when I was only five years old, there was much turmoil, for liberals as well as labor leaders (which my father was) were persecuted along with conservatives by the "revolutionaries" who sought complete control. The uprooting was sudden and cruel, so that we (the DIAZ-OBENs) grew up with the PAZOS-DIAZ second cousins, in New Jersey, as our only link to our homeland.
Everyone just wanted to forget the old and start anew in the land of opportunity. It hurt to open old wounds. Also, discussions might lead to arguments and to hurt feelings.
Cordially,
Ines Diaz-Oben
Please feel free to contact me off-board with any information or to post the information for others to benefit as well.