Sitting at a table at Starbucks in Foothill Ranch in December, Justin Fuentes teared up at the thought of what his grandparents endured before they were able to escape Cuba.
In the weeks before, he and 24 other family members had toured the country to allow Fuentes’ grandmother, Marta Arenado, a chance to see her home country for the first time in almost 50 years.
When Fidel Castro claimed power after the revolution in 1959, he aimed to punish those who didn’t agree with his views. Yito Arenado was imprisoned and lost the family business.
“There are a lot of stories,” said Fuentes, 26, who works for Abilities Unlimited and lives in Foothill Ranch. “It was tough for them.”
But even after all that, Marta Arenado, 82, wanted to return to Cuba to see her relatives and her hometown at least one more time. Her husband had refused to revisit Cuba as long as Castro was in control. Yito Arenado died in 1994.
On Nov. 18 Marta Arenado arrived in Cuba accompanied by 24 family members.
Four were her children and six her grandchildren, including Fuentes.
The vacation brought three generations of the Lake Forest- and Rancho Santa Margarita-based family together to see the sights and learn what the couple had experienced in Cuba. Included in that group were professional baseball players Nolan and Jonah Arenado, and Josh Fuentes, all grandsons of Marta Arenado.
“(We) really couldn’t grasp that we were all returning to Cuba. It was a serial moment; a dream in a way,” said Mercedes Melian, Fuentes’ mother and Marta’s daughter.
Uncertain of how the locals would react to Castro’s death, the family had to bottle their emotions until they returned to the States on Dec. 2.
“We couldn’t believe it,” Fuentes recalled. “We had our private moments, but all in all, we had to keep it quiet.”
Going back
The family had always talked about going to Cuba. But with Marta Arenado getting older, they knew they had to make the trip a priority so she could see family members and friends, some of whom had helped her flee in 1967.
The trip was organized by Americas Cuba Travel in Lake Forest, which Melian owns.
The first week was spent visiting tourists spots like Havana and seeing the sights that define Cuba: old American muscle cars, horse carriages and the same old buildings Marta Arenado saw when she was younger – some of which had received recent coats of paint.
But that part of the trip was also marred by uncertainty. Family members were told early on by a tour guide to watch what they said.
“He told us, ‘Don’t say anything about Fidel,’” Fuentes recalled. “I knew going in that we couldn’t say much. It was definitely a little eerie, hearing them talk about Fidel.”
A sighting of Boniato prison, on the southeastern part of the island, gave family members an idea of the conditions Yito Arenado endured before fleeing to Spain.
Beginning in 1961, Arenado spent three years at the prison, one of the toughest in Cuba, after his name was placed on a list by militants for taking a political stance against Castro, said Fernando Arenado, Yito’s son and Fuentes’ uncle.
“This is going to sound crazy, but my dad was lucky to only serve three years,” Fernando Arenado said.
“There were guys who served 20 to 25 years, and there were guys who didn’t even come out of it. They were murdered.”
During that time, Marta Arenado would visit the prison to try to get food to her husband. She took their three children with her just once, Fuentes said.
“They would make her strip naked and make the kids strip naked to shame her as a way of saying, ‘Why are you visiting him? He’s a traitor,’” Fuentes said, adding that his grandfather sometimes wouldn’t get fed for a week.
Government officials took over the family’s home and business. Marta Arenado would wake up early to make juice, hoping to sell it to make money, Fuentes said.
When Yito Arenado was released from Boniato prison in 1964, he tried to get visas to the United States but was caught and sent back to the prison.
But, while in prison for the second time, he came across a longtime friend who was part of Castro’s movement. Their views on government policy differed, but the bond they formed proved beneficial. Fernando Arenado said the man helped get his dad out of prison early.
In 1967, the Arenados’ visas were approved by Spain.
They boarded a plane and headed to Madrid for eight months. A year later they boarded another plane to America and eventually made their way to California.
Guantanamo
The second week of the trip was designed specifically to visit Guantanamo and view the sights Marta Arenado experienced when she was young.
But things took a surprising turn at about 12:30 a.m. Nov. 26. Family members were awakened by news of Castro’s passing.
“In a weird way, we were happy, but at the same time, we didn’t know what was next,” Melian recalled. “Were they going to shut down the airport? Would there be an uprising?”
In Cuba, people were somber.
“No one really commented, Melian said. “Whatever you felt, you had to bottle it up and pretend you were sad.”
Marta Arenado was in tears, Fuentes recalled.
“She was kind of in shock. She didn’t want to talk about it at first, but she eventually opened up and started with stories.”
Because Yito had vowed never to visit while Castro was in power, his wife hadn’t visited family members in Guantanamo.
Now, coincidentally, during her first trip back, the man who caused her family pain 50 years ago was gone.
“I felt a sense of relief and happy a little bit when I heard the news,” she recalled. “I don’t wish death on anybody, but I felt a hope for the Cuban people.”
Almost everywhere the family went, pictures and displays were set up around town to memorialize Castro.
In Santiago, where he was to be buried, they saw photo displays of Castro and Che Guevara during the revolution. The military initiated nine days of mourning, during which alcohol, music and dancing were forbidden.
“You were restricted to how you feel,” Melian said. “I realized, more than ever, that there’s definitely two worlds going on in Cuba: the world of tourism, music, happiness, fun (and) an abundance of nostalgia being behind 50 years.
“But at the same time, you still feel the manipulation, the oppression,” she said.
“It hasn’t really gone away.”
Castro’s ashes were buried in Santiago two days after the family returned to the U.S., ending the nine days of mourning.
But, back on American soil, family members were able to reflect on the history they had witnessed.
“Going back to Cuba and seeing how they live there, I’m so thankful my dad took the sacrifices for not only us, but every other Cuban American who came to the United States,” Fernando Arenado said. “I’m so grateful and blessed. We live in the best country in the world.”
Contact the writer: npercy@scng.com
