December 1962 President Kennedy is presented the flag of the 2506 Brigade. Miami, Florida, Orange Bowl Stadium. L-R: Eneido Oliva, Miami Mayor Robert King High, Jose Perez San Roman, Manuel Artime, President Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy, former Cuban President Jose Miro Cardona, and Reverend Ismael Lugo. Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Jose Azel writes this great article about his experiences in Cuba at the creation of Cuba’s totalitarian state back in 1959.

“Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.” This nostalgic expression of Alfonso X King of Castile (1252-1284) inspired the title of Dean Acheson’s memoirs “Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department.”  Acheson (1893-1971) was not just present at the creation of the postwar world; he was one of its architects until he left office as Secretary of State in 1953.

Similarly, my generation was present at the creation of Cuba’s totalitarian state beginning in 1959 and has witnessed the socioeconomic devastation of a nation.  In the introduction to my book “Reflections on Freedom,” I recount the story of how I was ten years old in January 1959 when the Cuban revolution came to town. Like most Cuban children I was captivated by the circus-like and storybook qualities of that surreal experience.

I did not then apprehend the antecedents and the consequences, and it did not take long for the storybook heroes to turn into villains. Within a year I had joined the underground urban resistance fighting against the Castro regime.

Following the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, my father concluded that for our safety, my brothers and I should leave Cuba. Thus, in June 1961, I left Cuba as part of Operation Pedro Pan, the largest exodus of unaccompanied children in the history of the Western Hemisphere. I began life in the United States as a thirteen-year-old political exile with an indelible, if juvenile idea of our individual freedoms and how they must be protected. I was never able to see my father again, and I have never returned to my place of birth as I vowed never to return until Cuba was once again free.