Jack Kingston: “One of the great parts of my childhood growing up in Athens, Georgia, it was not so great for them particularly at the…”

“One of the great parts of my childhood growing up in Athens, Georgia, it was not so great for them particularly at the time was when so many Cubans fled Castro and Athens, Georgia, was one of the towns that they arrived in. I was raised with Maria Saladriguez and Rosa Chavez and all kinds of kids that came in the 10th grade and assimilated fairly quickly. But it was interesting, as we went to their house, they were still speaking Spanish; and their parents, who often had been physicians and professional businesspeople in Cuba, in Havana, were now reduced to working in laundromats and doing manual labor in America. I actually sold my house to a guy named Roberto Casillo in Savannah, Georgia, and his family was among that crowd. His dad had been a doctor over there and it did not transfer. But all three of his sons became physicians. They are all practicing in Georgia. What I have appreciated about the people who had to leave Cuba, who love Cuba to this day but cannot stand Castro, love America even more and have embraced America with this big bear hug and taken on all rights and privileges that, wait a minute, this is the land of the free, the land of opportunity.”