I really don’t think most of us Americans truly understand what that means. What does Freedom cost? Why? Because we’ve never lost it completely, we take it for granted. 

During Covid, we felt it a little bit. You could be arrested for violating the mandatory mask laws; opening your business to the public without it being approved as a “necessity”; going to public places that were still legally closed; etc., etc. Do you remember those feelings you felt when denied limited amount of Freedom? Anger? Frustration? Helplessness? 

I had the wonderful privilege, during my high school years in Dodge City, KS, to get to know my Spanish teacher Celia Pineiro and her husband Sergio on a very personal level. In fact, many times I was invited over to their apartment for a meal or just to visit. While Celia taught high school Spanish, Sergio taught Conversational Spanish at St. Mary’s College. During my lunch hours, I would drive up to the campus and sit in on his classes free of charge. Yes, I was blessed. 

It was become of them; I learned firsthand about our Freedom. 

The Pineiro’s were from Cuba. They both were respected journalists there. That was before Fidel Castro took control. In fact, they met the guy once and thought he was going to do great things for their country. Whew, were they ever deceived. When Castro got control and announced to them and the rest of the world that he was a communist, their world changed forever. 

In the blink of an eye, they lost all of their Freedom. 

One of his first acts of oppression toward his own countrymen was to take away their Freedom of Speech. ALL media outlets were no longer privately owned but now controlled by his communist government. ALL radio stations. ALL newspapers. ALL television stations. ALL magazines. This was before the internet, but he would have shut that down too if it existed back then.

Next was food. Rationing. Gone was the Freedom to choose your own groceries. Celia shared a heartbreaking story with me that she experienced. 

“We were given one chicken a week, Victoria. My mother was sick, so I made her some chicken soup. As I was walking to her house, some soldiers stopped me and asked where I was going. I told them what I was doing. They refused to let me pass and told me to go home. I cried all the way back home. My mother did survive, but I’ll never forget that feeling!” Freedom to congregate. 

Sergio broke in with his encounter with soldiers patrolling the streets. 

“My shoes had holes in them on the bottom of the soles. I decided to take them to my friend who ran a shoe repair shop. I was stopped and questioned. When I showed the soldiers my soles, they told me to go home and put some cardboard in them!” Freedom of purchases or services. 

And then things got worse. Celia and Sergio had only one child, a son named Joe. 

All private schools were closed. At the public school, on every level, children were being indoctrinated with communist brainwashing. They had heard the story of a kindergarten teacher using this method. She had her young students sit around her in a circle. She instructed the children to close their eyes and pray to God that He would give them a cookie. Then she had them open their eyes and asked them, “Did God give you a cookie?” of course the answer was no. “Now”, she said,” close your eyes and ask Presidente Castro for a cookie.” She quickly laid a cookie in front of each child. “Open your eyes! See! God didn’t answer your prayer, but Presidente Castro did!” Freedom of religion. 

But Castro didn’t stop there. 

Their son Joe was at a public park one day. A large moving van truck stopped alongside the curb. Out jumped several soldiers with rifles. Joe immediately ran into a nearby store and watched in horror as the soldiers started rounding up young men his age and loaded them into the truck. He later found out they were being sent to Russia to be persuaded to start thinking as a communist. He knew it was past time to leave his country and seek refuge in America. 

This program that Joe knew about was called “Operation Peter Pan”. It was used between Cuba and the United States from 1960 to 1962. Through that agreement, over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors ages 6 to 18 were safely removed from their homeland. Let me point out something to you. Unaccompanied. Castro would not allow families to leave together. Freedom of travel. 

So, they sent Joe first. And in his absence, their persecutions of being traitors began in earnest. 

Celia left the following year. At the airport in Havana, she had to sit in a clear glass case with loudspeakers blaring into the cubicle calling her a traitor to her country and why she shouldn’t leave Cuba. But she did. Freedom to choose where you want to travel. 

And finally, six months later, Sergio stepped on Free soil. 

So, on this Fourth of July, please, I beg you, stop and say a thank you for 250 years of Freedom. And realize that we are privileged to live in the greatest country in the world. We are so spoiled.

Victoria

Photo of Celia Pineiro