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Article_After decades of separation, Cuban-Americans greet homeland

Feature News | Tuesday, October 13, 2015

After decades of separation, Cuban-Americans greet homeland

Pilgrims from South Florida encounter Havana during papal visit

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HAVANA | With looks of astonishment, disbelief and joy, dozens of Cuban-Americans stepped off a charter flight from Miami to Havana last month to encounter the island capital during the historic visit of Pope Francis.

They saw the places where they went to school, the churches where they were married, the social clubs where they celebrated important family events, along with the landmark features of Havana including the malecón (sea wall) and la Habana vieja (the old city quarter).

But they also saw firsthand the crumbling residential streets, neglected housing and structural decay, and clear indications of material shortages and lack of opportunity that would seem unthinkable elsewhere.

For many, it was a first return to the island after decades of separation and distrust following the Cuban Revolution. But the papal visit, the easing of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S., and the aging of the Cuban-American exiles meant that now was the time for some to see Havana again.

Standing in line for immigration processing at Havana's airport, Miami resident Gloria Arazoza said it has been 55 years since her family left Cuba. She came with her son — who had come for the 2012 visit of Pope Benedict XVI — as well as her daughter-in-law, granddaughter and extended family members.

"It has been a great gift to be able to come. I never thought I would be able to return, but this pilgrimage came up with the pope here and my children said, 'This is the time to go, you either go now or you don't go,' and I said 'Great, let's go.' There is a lot to be said about this turn of events in 2015, and that I am going with this pope. The younger ones (in the family) brought us."

Gloria Arazoza smiles after setting foot in the homeland she left 55 years ago.

Photographer: COURTESY | Mary Soto

Gloria Arazoza smiles after setting foot in the homeland she left 55 years ago.

Arazoza said she would visit her old house, her grandparents’ house, the parish church in Havana where she married, and the old campus of Santo Tomás de Villanueva University where she went to school. She also wanted to see the old Havana Biltmore Country Club, where she and her now-deceased husband spent some of the early years of their marriage.

"My husband was pretty open and was not one of those who said he would never come back but it wasn't such a common thing to go," she said.

Francis Serantes Gomez, a Miami resident who had not been back to her homeland since 1961, came with her husband Andy Gomez, a retired academic from the University of Miami who has traveled to Cuba in recent years and who is helping support parish programs at one of the churches in the Old Havana district.

"I did want to come but I had reservations and also respect for my parents and their beliefs, so this is a big deal. I love this pope and I just feel a little safer maybe because of the connections and the reconciliation with the United States."

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski led the Sept. 18-21 pilgrimage from Miami to Havana in support of Pope Francis’ historic visit to the island before the pope’s three-city visit to the U.S., culminating in the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

The Florida delegation of pilgrims to Cuba included clergy, adults, families and young adults. It was the third Miami archdiocesan pilgrimage to Cuba for the three consecutive papal visits there, beginning with Pope John Paul II in 1998.

The Florida group celebrated two private Masses in Havana churches: one with Archbishop Wenski in Jesús de Miramar Church; and the other with Cardinal Sean O’Malley and a group of Boston pilgrims in the Carmelite church in el Vedado. They also joined tens of thousands of Cubans attending the Sept. 20 Mass with Pope Francis in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución.

For logistical reasons, the Florida group did not travel to the pope’s two other stops, Holguín and the region of Santiago de Cuba, home of the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, Cuba’s patroness.

Mary Soto, 25, a resident of Columbia, S.C. who works for a television news station there, grew up in Miami with her Cuban-American family and made the Havana pilgrimage with her mother (Florida Catholic Miami editor Ana Rodriguez-Soto), who left at the age of two.

"I grew up thinking I would never be able to go, so as soon as the chance came up to go and see it in the state it is in now and everything my grandmother talks about, I wanted to see that. I got most of my stories about Cuba from my grandmother,” Soto said.

"I think the pope will have a huge impact,” she added. “I think it will be a very unifying experience for folks and I hope he spreads the Gospel and the joy and the word, really unifies people."

Soto concluded her visit with a final bicycle-taxi ride to the malecón. Like most of the pilgrims, she captured the details of the experience with ample photos and video clips to now share with family and friends back home.

 

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