Cuban Exile Quotes

My mother made the courageous decision to flee a tyrannized Cuba in the 1950s and bring her children to the United States, where I was born.

My story is the American dream that my parents fled Cuba for.

When Castro was put on trial in 1953 by Batista's government and asked who was intellectually responsible for his first attempt at insurrection, he dropped the name of the poet Jose Marti.

That first play I did in New York, Rogelio Martinez's 'When It's Cocktail Time in Cuba,' I played a young Fidel Castro.

What I'll say is that Cuban-Americans don't have to deal with the same immigration issues as other nationalities because of the 'wet feet, dry feet' policy. For Cubans, one year after you touch United States territory, you can become a legal resident.

Well, you know, I left Cuba as a kid when I was 6 years old back in 1971.

In 1995, the Clinton Administration reached an agreement with Cuban government that any refugee caught at sea would be sent back to Cuba while any refugee who reaches the United States shores would be allowed to begin the process to citizenship after one year.

My documentary 'Split Decision' examines Cuban-American relations, and the economic and cultural paradoxes that have shaped them since Castro's revolution, through the lens of elite Cuban boxers forced to choose between remaining in Cuba or defecting to America.

My mother left Hungary as a refugee, and she is not nostalgic for the life that she had back in Hungary, and yet Cubans certainly want the economic opportunity in the United States, but they're desperately homesick for the culture that they left behind.

Both of my parents were born into poor families on the island of Cuba. They came to America because it was the only place where people like them could have a chance.

I'm not Cuban and therefore don't have any family members who were oppressed by Castro's regime. But I do have a number of friends whose families were.

The Mariel boatlift was probably one of the most strengthening events of the exile community; maybe Nietzschean, in the sense that if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger.

Faith leaders, young people, American companies, human rights advocates, and many others have demonstrated a unique interest in our Cuba policy. But no community cares more deeply about these issues than Cuban Americans - young and old - who have maintained a profound interest in Cuba and an abiding faith in the Cuban people.

Both my parents came with their parents during the revolution in Cuba. Both my parents were born in Cuba. They left everything over there. My family got stripped of everything - of their land, of their jobs, everything.

I grew up in Florida, and I have a lot of friends, close friends, who are Cuban-Americans, and I have heard the stories of their families escaping, and some of them didn't even make it to come to the United States for a better life to get away from the Castros.

I'm actually Cuban-born, born in 1956, the year Fidel Castro came into power, and my father moved my family to Miami a few years later when things were starting to look bad.

I had a chance to play for the Cuban national team during the 2009 World Baseball Classic, but at the time I never thought about leaving Cuba.

The only way to Cuba is with the CIA.

My grandfather left Cuba when Castro came into power and literally left everything. He had two suitcases and two kids and showed up in New Jersey and waited for my uncle to meet up with him. Imagine - there were no cell phones back then!

To me, the New Jersey law enforcement community, and many other Americans, one of the biggest impediments to improved relations between the United States and Cuba is the continued safe haven provided to the fugitive, Joanne Chesimard.

Fidel Castro for me is like a father.

I stand as I always have with the Cuban people who love, cherish and celebrate liberty. Hard-working, helpful people who open their hearts and homes to all, whether in Cuba or in exile.

I have not been to Cuba, though if you count the stories my grandma told me growing up, I've been there in my head many times. I think someday I will see it, when things are different there, but I've come to feel like I really am a Miami girl.

I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that fucker is still here.

We had no clue that Cuba was not Marco Rubio. You get there, and everyone is Afro Cuban. And you start to realize, 'Where are the blonde, blue-eyed Cubans? Oh, they're all in Miami.'