Personal Narrative: Visiting Cuba Essay

From April 15 to October 31 in 1980, over 125,000 Cuban migrants arrived in the United States. Family members from America ferried relatives and institutionalized Cubans from the Cuban port of Mariel, in what was soon coined the Mariel Boatlift. Mirta Ojito, one of these ‘Marielitos’, as they soon were termed, grew up to write “Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus”. In this text, the author provides a historic account of events leading up to the Mariel Boatlift, narratives from important figures surrounding the event, and a personal narrative describing the struggle of her family to gain freedom from the socialist dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Throughout the story of the years preceding the boatlift and the influence that living in Cuba held on her life, Ojito describes the positive and negative elements of the both the political climate and personal life on the communist island which led to her eventual emigration to the United States.

This paper is about the time I went to the Dominican Republic and Nassau, Bahamas with my family and the wonderful lessons I learned or thought about even more. I learned a lot when I was in those two places because there were a lot of examples of the lessons I learned. Both places are very large and there are multiple people who show the lessons in their everyday life.

My experiences with Cuba are divided into two segments of my life. The first segment was during my eight years of living in Boca Raton, FL which I will refer to the first as the “tangible” segment. The second segment was during my time living in Washington, D.C. prior to Colgate and post Florida. This second stage will be referred to as “information” segment. My reasoning behind these names relates to the ways I experienced Cuban culture at that given period. During my stay in Florida, I was able to see, hear, touch, eat, and experience Cuban culture first hand. While in Washington, D.C., this changed as most of my knowledge based around Cuban culture was taken from movies, video-games, or my general thirst for knowledge from the internet.

Cuba’s regime eulogizes Communism in the morning, then applauds its successful trade deals on the nightly news. For over two decades the island has struggled with a disjointed identity. They are constantly building hotels yet ignorant to the mounting adversities faced by an increasing number of tourists.

In June of 2016, I got a summer job working for Jeffco Open Space.I wasn’t excited but I wanted to go on a trip to the Dominican Republic. I needed to save roughly $3,000. I was gonna be working on trails all day in the summer heat and I required to have at least one 32 ounce water bottle. I went online and purchased my first Nalgene bottle off of Amazon, I think it was around $15 with shipping and handling. It came in the mail and it was about three weeks before my job started and I loved it! It’s pink with a silver-grey lip. At first, I didn’t decorate it with stickers but in July I went to Pride Festival and got my first sticker. Its circle, it has this rainbow background, and in block print it says PRIDE. Then I eventually added my

My whole family and I were devastated by the sudden death of my uncle Ryan. He had been sick with what we had thought was the flu, but later realized that it was pneumonia. I believe that we learned so much from this experience and were able to come closer as a family. As a result of my uncle’s death, my whole family decided to take a get-a-way trip to the Dominican Republic during his birthday and Christmas. While I was there I learned a very important lesson; I am blessed to live in the United States.

My family and I left for Panama city, Florida in June of 2011. The trip was so fun; we sang songs and laughed hysterically during the whole ride there. When we arrived we were all ready for the beach warm sand and it’s cool waves. We stayed at the beach until about nine and everyone prepared for dinner. Once everyone settled in we sat and ate dinner, as always the dinner was great with my family. Everyone talked about any and everything; we even cracked jokes on each other.

"Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time" - Marian Wright Edelman. To serve others is to minister and help others in various ways; it is not an act to do for show or publicity, but simply to enrich and help the lives of others and your own life. Everyone can serve one another in some form or fashion without even realizing the impact. Over my high school and college career, I have volunteered for a multitude of community service projects, ranging from mission trips, to serving the local HESED house children. Although, out of all of these projects, the one that leaves a lasting impact to me was the mission trip to the Dominican Republic.

Antique cars line up along the streets of Havana, while horse buggies prance on the cobbled roads with large posters depicting images of the country’s revolutionary leader, Che Guevara posted on the walls besides them. Entering the small towns,Whitman students and teachers were welcomed by Cuban dancers and offered by the locals to join in their activities.

The day has finally come to go on vacation and my family, and I departed promptly from our house at 4:30 in the morning. Our flight was scheduled for 7 in the morning at Pittsburgh International Airport. We had to arrive there early because all people flying international had to be there two hours before the flight. All of us boarded the flight out to Punta Cana, which is located in the Dominican Republic. I can remember that I was so excited to go, and I was the first on the flight. I am almost positive that it took over three hours to get to the Dominican Republic from Pittsburgh. It was a really long flight to me because I could not wait to get there, and I just wanted to land. Finally, the moment has come, and we landed. When we departed from the plane, they had hula dancers dancing around us, and it was the coolest thing I have ever seen. They had people that would take pictures of you when you got off the plane. My family and I obliged and got our pictures taken. After all our pictures were taken, we went inside the airport and

Moving to a new country is very difficult for every person, even more, if it does not have anything in common with your origin country. Crossing borders, taking airplanes, and risking your life can become part of the immigration process. In this essay, I am going to explain the history of how I get out of Cuba. Also, I will be explaining how I reached this country. It was hard, but not impossible, and it was paid off already.

During this research on Cuba, a study was conducted to determine changed views of the Caribbean island. The embargo placed on Cuba by the United States has implemented a certain view and depicted the opinions of Americans. While many countries can visit Cuba, the ban of Americas traveling to Cuba has isolated the reality of the countries situation. A group of eight was ordained to compare certain aspects of Cuba before and after their trip to Cuba. They focused on the levels of safety, feelings toward the embargo, and their expectation. After they were interviewed, the first drastic change was on the dangerous travel situations American Tourism placed on Cuba. Those in this research found Cuba to be one of the safest places they have visited.

I was always careless about all of my valuables,that was until they were all gone. It was Christmas vacation of 2011 and my mom was planning a flight to go to Dominican Republic to escape the cold Boston weather. My mother could only pick between me and my sister to go with her and naturally she chose my sister. She was probably still mad at me for times she has bought me electronics and video games that i don’t even touch anymore. I wanted to stay home by myself while they were away but she practically forced me to go to New York where my dad lives. I wasn't against the idea of seeing my dad I just didn't want to go a state where he was the only person I knew. But it was already decided so I got my stuff ready and got ready to leave and left in a transportation bus to New York. When I arrived there my dad was waiting for me in front of the apartment that he lived. Before even entering in his house his took me out to eat.I didn’t even have time to unpack. About the time we were eating my mom and my sister were arriving to Dominican Republic. After me and my dad finished eating he asked me

In the summer of 2011 when I was the age of thirteen, I reached the biggest milestone in my life; which was going to Nicaragua all by myself. I could remember the day when my dad booked the flight and thinking how my siblings and I would experience where my parents grew up and how things worked in their hometown. It was not until a few days later when my dad walked into my room; seriously but not furiously and said, “Son at your age, you should feel so lucky that you guys have a better life than your mother and I had. The ticket I bought, was for you and only for you; you are the only one going on this trip so, then you know what your mother and I went through to be here to give you guys the life we wanted as a kid.” I did not understand what

Has your makeshift, third world bus ever broken down and left you stranded in ninety five degree heat with no air conditioning or water? For the last several years, Cuba had been closed for U.S. tourists and Americans were only allowed limited travel. Cuba is considered a communist political system with Castro as their president. In March of 2017, I was able to experience this interesting destination with my family and friends from church. As we were driving to our house in Trinidad, the scenery from the ride was very rural and farm like. Trinidad is a very unique city in Cuba and is most known for their classic cars from the 1950’s, which are still being used there today. It was shocking to see these vintage cars riding up and down the streets