by
Union City, New Jersey, is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. It's the heart of the nation's second largest Cuban community. New Jersey is home to some 80,000 of America's one and a half million Cubans.
Bergenline Avenue is Main Street Union City. While it's an architecturally typical early to mid-twentieth century concrete Main Street, it explodes with colorful Spanish-language marquis above the shops and restaurants bursting with customers. There's even a sign advertising the express bus that still runs between Miami and Union City. This area of Hudson County has been the center of Cuban life in the New York City-area since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and its aftermath.
[BEGIN AMBIENT SOUND FROM EL ARTISANO]
Cuban exile Ignacio Alfonso founded El Artisano restaurant on 41st Street and Bergenline Avenue in 1974. You can still stand at the window out front and order yourself a "cafesito" [AMBIENT SOUND OF ESPRESSO MACHINE] - a particularly strong brew of espresso Cubans are famous for. But Alfonso says the neighborhood's changed.
Actuality
[Ignacio Alfonso; TIME: 00:06]
Cuando abrimos, eramos puro Cubano. Hoy en dia, no. Hoy en dia es mixta.
[Translation: When we opened we were all Cuban. Now, today, no. Today, it's mixed.]
Narrative
Most of the staff and diners are now from many countries in Latin America, not only Cuba. You seldom hear anything but Spanish. A woman orders a few ham croquettes, a fried Cuban specialty.
[Ambient Sound: someone placing an order for ham croquettes]
And a waiter moves quickly to deliver a heaping plate of rice and beans, fried bananas and shredded beef - or Ropa Vieja - to one of the patrons. The food is still authentically Cuban.
Attorney Fidel Gonzalez and his wife Justa have been coming to El Artisano for as long as they can remember. On this day, Gonzalez orders a mid-afternoon cafesito.
[Ambient Sound: request for coffee]
They're both around 80 years old. Conversation quickly turns to their grandchildren and a prideful discussion of Cuban identity.
Actuality
[Justa Gonzalez; TIME: 00:06]
[JUSTA GONZALEZ] Mi nieto esta muy orgulloso de ser Cubano, y mi nieta igual. Ellos dicen que son Cubanos.
[translation: [JUSTA GONZALEZ] My grandson is very proud to be Cuban, and my grandaughter the same.
Narrative
Fidel reinforces the point with an anecdote.
Actuality
[Fidel Gonzalez; TIME: 00:15]
[FIDEL GONZALEZ] Ayer yo estuve en el banco, y habia una muchacha nueva alli en el teller. Y le pregunte de donde el espanol tuyo tan bonito. Dice "Yo soy Cubana. Dice yo naci aqui, pero soy Cubana.
[translation: [FIDEL GONZALEZ] Yesterday, I was in the bank and there was a new young woman at the teller. And I asked her where her beatiful Spanish was from. She said, "I'm Cuban. I mean, I was born here, but I'm Cuban."]
Narrative
El Artisano is where the Gonzalezes and others come to reminisce about the Cuba they left behind. Alfonso, the proprietor, tells the story of his attempt to flee Cuba by boat in the early 1960s. His friend, now-regular customer Fidel Gonzalez, represented him in that case.
And Fidel Gonzalez tells his story of serving as an attorney for the revolution's agrarian reform program in its early days. But like many others, he became disillusioned and ultimately left Cuba.
Documenting any community of Cuban exiles often begins and ends with references to the Cuba they say is gone forever.
Actuality
[JUSTA GONZALEZ; TIME 00:19]
Yo me siento muy triste, porque en realidad la Cuba que nosotros teniamos y la Cuba donde nosotros viviamos, ya es un recuerdo. Son tres generaciones. Ya todo ha cambiado. Las costumbres hasta la forma de hablar ha cambiado.
[translation: [JUSTA GONZALEZ] I feel very sad because, in reality, the Cuba that we had and the Cuba where we lived is already just a memory. It's three generations! Already everythying has changed - from the customs to the way of speaking. It's all changed.]
Narrative
And while Fidel Gonzalez also looks back and laments the course of events in Cuba over the last half century, switching to English he says the conversations are changing.
Actuality
[FIDEL GONZALEZ; TIME: 00:15]
I believe that in Cuba I believe that change is coming. Some believe that it is coming quickly or very soon. Some believe that it's not very soon, like me. But there is a new start now, there is a new situation now.
Narrative
Sitting with the Gonzalezes at the lunch counter, Alfonso agrees with Fidel's assessment. He shares his thoughts on the sensation caused by some recent economic reforms, such as the lifting of the restriction on Cubans visiting tourist hotels on the Island, and how they affect the average Cuban.
Actuality
[Ignacio Alfonso; TIME: 00:18]
[IGNACIO ALFONSO]
El que tenga cinquenta anos, nacio en el systema. No ha visto otra cosa que eso. Por eso ahora, cuando ponen en una escaparate, ponen telefonos cellulares, computadoras, se vuelven locos por verlo porque nunca les habian visto.
[translation [IGNACIO ALFONSO]: Someone who is 50 years old was born in the system. That person has never seen anything different. Because of that, now, when they put cell phones and computers in the display windows, the people go crazy, because they've never seen this before.]
Narrative
Justa Gonzalez waits to see more than window dressing.
Actuality
[MRS. GONZALEZ; TIME 00:15]
I hope Cuba will be free and the people over there; they can have a better life.
Narrative
Gonzalez and his wife would like to be able to travel back and forth to Cuba. But regardless of where recent changes take the island nation, they don't intend to move back to Cuba.
[END AMBIENT SOUND FROM THE ARTISANO RESTAURANT]
If you walk a block and around the corner from El Artisano, you get to Jose Marti Park. It's small, just a few benches, but it has a bust of Jose Marti. Marti was the father of Cuban Independence. He remains a hero to Cubans the world over, in particular to Eduardo Ramirez. He's 54 and he works in a factory. He came from Cuba just two years ago. Standing in front of a bust of Marti, Ramirez says he's ready to go back tomorrow. Because of the changes being implemented, he believes that day might be coming soon.
Actuality
[EDUARDO RAMIREZ; TIME 00:14]
Ultimamente, en estos ultimos meses se ha avisorado cambios en la isla que parece que van a ver los cambios que los Cubanos deseamos. Y se avisora una esperanza de cambios para el pueblo.
[translation [EDUARDO RAMIREZ]: In recent months, they have seen changes on the island and it looks like they are changes we Cubans desire. And they have seen hope for change for the people.]
Narrative
He's a part of the bridge he'd like to see strengthened between the exiles and the Cubans on the Island. He often speaks to other Cubans here and by phone in Cuba. Since arriving in 2006, Ramirez has observed a subtle change in the language used within the exile community.
Actuality
[EDUARDO RAMIREZ; TIME 00:14]
Hemos visto que, por ejemplo, ya se habla de "nosotros." Que no somos los exiliados o Cubanos de aqui. Somos "nosotros" todos, como Cubanos.
[translation: We've seen, for example, that we're already talking about "us." That we are no more exiles or Cubans from here. We're simply all "us," all Cubans,]
Narrative
Not far from the center of Union City, painter Geandy Pavon and his wife, Maria Perez, live in an apartment that doubles as an art studio. They are part of the artistic and intellectual scene in the exile community. They're talking about a party with other Cubans they attended the night before.
[BEGIN AMBIENT SOUND FROM THE ART STUDIO/APARTMENT]
Actuality
[MARIA PEREZ; TIME 00:05]
First of all, there was no passionate argument, if you can believe that among Cubans.
Narrative
For many decades, discussions about Cuba in the exile community have been marked by acrimony and even intimidation. Pavon and Perez detected a changing dialogue at a party the night before.
Actuality
[MARIA PEREZ; TIME 00:28]
We were talking normally. We were not screaming at each other, we were not pointing fingers. It was your fault. It is your fault. And so and so. And you did this. And you were from the left and I'm from the right. None of that. We were talking about common things that we share. And it was very sincere. I didn't feel threatened, and I stated my point.
[GEANDY PAVON; TIME 00:18]
There were people from very different political points of view. We were sharing. We were having a conversation. There was no you, and he, and she. We were together talking about the nation.
Narrative
Perez left Cuba in 1969. 34-year-old Pavon left in 1996.
That afternoon, a long-time family friend was visiting, Cuban poet and playwright, Jorge Valls.
His story is a common one. Valls served 20 years in Fidel's jails and says he was ultimately released in 1984. He's watched the situation closely for decades and is quite familiar with the hard-liners and their positions. He's now is in his mid-70s and sees those hard-liners fading into history.
Actuality
[JORGE VALLS; TIME 00:20]
There are some who consider that any dialogue with the government is awful, dishonorable. They still havc the spirit of war, belligerence. They're a very small group, but they exist.
Narrative
All three agree that the polarization between communism and anti-communism is becoming a relic and that the discussion is moving back to a sense of one nation, one people. Valls believes this is creating new realities.
Actuality
[JORGE VALLS; TIME 00:16]
The feeling that the period has ended. That something new is going to happen. And that we want to participate in that. That is, we are not foreigners.
Narrative
Valls and Pavon see themselves as no less Cuban for living in exile. For them, Cuba is much more than a physical place.
Actuality
[JORGE VALLS & GEANDY PAVON; TIME 00:23]
[VALLS] Cuba is a faith. The moment you stop believing you stop being Cuban. While you believe, you are a Cuban. [PAVON] That's beautiful. If you stop believing in the nation of Cuba, it will be the end of Cuba. But while there are some people thinking of Cuba and holding that idea as a treasure, Cuba will be forever.
[Bring up music, then lower music for narrative]
Narrative
Pavon says he has a piece of music that he likes to listen to while painting. It's a piano duet by a Cuban father and son team - Bebo and Chucho Valdes. Bebo was the lead pianist at the Tropicana Hotel in Havana until the revolution and has lived in exile since then. Bridging their decades-long separation, Bebo and his son, Chucho, who lives in Cuba, perform the famous Cuban composition, La Comparsa by Ernesto Lecuona.
[music for 10 seconds, then music lowers for SOC]
SOC: Ivan Dominguez, Columbia Radio News
[Music for 15 more seconds, then it goes dead]