Cuban Author Recounts Harrowing Escape During Freedom Flights

"They kicked us out of the house and sealed the door." This moment remains etched in the mind of Ana Hebra Flaster, even though she was just five years old at the time.

One fateful night, a guard unexpectedly showed up, handed over exit visas, and forced her family to leave their home. Before departing, he posted a sign on the door: "Property of the Revolution." Years later, this phrase would become the title of her memoir.

Now a Cuban-American writer living in New Hampshire, Hebra Flaster shared her story in an interview with public radio station WBUR, marking the 60th anniversary of the start of the Freedom Flights, the largest refugee airlift in U.S. history.

Between 1965 and 1973, nearly 300,000 Cubans fled the island through this route after negotiating their departure with Fidel Castro's regime.

From Revolution Supporters to Persecuted Enemies

Hebra Flaster recounted that her parents, both workers and educators, initially supported the Revolution. Her mother even risked her life collecting funds and medicines for the rebels. However, the promised restoration of democracy never materialized. Instead, repression, executions, and total control over daily life took hold.

The family's ordeal began when they applied for exit visas. Over three years, they were dismissed from their jobs, harassed, and labeled as "enemies of the Revolution." Their home was vandalized, and they lived under the constant threat of arrest. "You were utterly vulnerable," Hebra Flaster recalled in the WBUR interview.

A Sudden Departure and a New Beginning

Their departure was abrupt, leaving no time for farewells. They could only take one suitcase with a change of clothes per person, leaving behind extended family, memories, and everything they had built. Like many other Cubans, they were branded as "worms," a derogatory term used by the regime for those attempting to leave.

Upon reaching the United States, Ana's first memory was not of abundance but of human dignity. In Miami, her mother tried to call a relative from a payphone but realized she had no money. Leaning against the phone, she broke down in tears. A kind stranger approached, handed her a coin, and walked away silently. "That was our first act of kindness in this country," she recounted.

Reflecting on the Past and Present Challenges

The writer emphasized that her journey was marked by what she describes as "incredible luck." Other family members were not as fortunate. She recalled a cousin who arrived during the Mariel exodus, stigmatized by the crisis, and another who was detained in Guantanamo during the 1994 Balseros crisis, returning to Cuba forever marked by his escape attempt.

In her testimony, Hebra Flaster also cast a critical eye on the present. She warned that many Cubans, once beneficiaries of refugee policies, now fear the deportation of family members who arrived legally in recent years. For her, history shows that the treatment of migrants depends not only on repression in their home countries but also on the political interests of the time.

"The days of sending planes to rescue those fleeing totalitarian regimes are over," she lamented. Nevertheless, she defended the U.S. tradition of asylum and recalled President Lyndon B. Johnson's words when he signed the Immigration Act of 1965, promising refuge to Cubans escaping dictatorship.

Reflecting on her experiences as a young exile and now as a writer, Ana Hebra Flaster concluded with a message that resonates with thousands of Cubans inside and outside the island: the hope that, despite everything, history will once again favor those who simply seek to live in freedom.