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In what is already being cast as a historic moment, the United States and Cuba have agreed to restore diplomatic relations, bringing a thaw to more than 55 years of Cold War-era politics.
For Mountain View’s new interim fire chief, perhaps more than anyone else in the city, the news had huge significance. Juan Diaz is a former Cuban refugee.
Cuba will always be like home, Diaz said, although he said the island county’s political system shouldn’t be described as anything but “totalitarian.” After coming to the U.S. 35 years ago, Diaz says he is hopeful that an influx of trade and tourism will someday bring about reforms in civil liberties to Cuba.
“I do sympathize with the view that we shouldn’t be dealing with a totalitarian government, but I also think that opening dialogue, it’ll allow the Cuban government to consider other options,” Diaz said. “When something hasn’t worked for 50 years, you might want to try other options.”
Diaz said he can still vividly remember his life in Cuba, particularly his family’s small one-bedroom apartment in Havana. The only appliance they had was a clothes iron, he recalled.
“I was happy because I didn’t know anything different,” Diaz said.
His family was unfortunately on the wrong side of history. His father, grandfather and uncle had all served as policemen under the Batista regime. After the 1960 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, the Diaz family was kept under close watch by the government and forbidden from traveling abroad. For a time, Diaz was warned that he could be sent to Angola or Ethiopia to fight as a soldier in one of the Soviet Union’s proxy wars.
The chance to leave the county came suddenly. In 1980, a small group of Cubans hoping to flee the country rammed a bus through the front gate of the Peruvian embassy, resulting in a firefight with Cuban soldiers. After the group was granted political asylum, a huge number of other Cubans began flooding through the breached embassy gates.
Diaz remembers the excitement at the time as his family discussed plans to join the exodus. The decision wasn’t easy, and it meant leaving their extended family.
“My dad said, ‘There’s hundreds of people jumping into the embassy. This is our way out.” Diaz recalled. “I trusted he was doing the right thing, but it was scary.”
As his family jumped the gate, Diaz remembers the embassy being overwhelmed with tens of thousands of people crammed shoulder to shoulder inside. In the following days, Cuban-Americans began sending a flotilla of boats to deliver some 125,000 refugees to Florida. News reels from the time showed a scrawny teenaged Diaz among a crowd of people packed on the deck of a shrimp boat called the “Sun Hippie” as it docked in Florida.
Arriving in the U.S. was revelatory, he said. As he climbed aboard a bus, Diaz felt a breeze of air conditioning for the first time. The streets, sidewalks and other fixtures looked better than anything he had seen before. Later, a cousin took him to a Burger King, and Diaz said he remembered picking the sesame seeds off his hamburger, because he was confused how he was supposed to eat it .
By late 1980, his family decided to start a new life in Santa Clara. That was a tough decision, Diaz said. South Florida felt almost like a second Havana because there were so many Cuban exiles living there, but the Diaz family was all alone in the South Bay. Diaz became an expert at quickly flipping through a dictionary to translate English words in school, but he said it took him a year before he felt confident enough to hold a conversation.
He enrolled at De Anza Community College with the idea to someday enter law enforcement like his dad, but he was gradually drawn to firefighting classes instead. Around 1985, he knocked on the door of a Santa Clara City fire station and offered his services as a volunteer firefighter. In the evenings, he worked with his father doing janitorial work.
Breaking into the insular ranks of firefighters wasn’t easy, and for three years South Bay fire departments, including Mountain View, passed over Diaz and selected other candidates. His big break came in 1988 when a progressive fire chief in San Jose, Robert Osby, decided to give Diaz a chance.
In his 27 years of firefighting experience, Diaz has served almost every role, including engine driver, fire inspector and battalion chief.
“I’ve delivered five babies in my life. How many people can say that?” he laughed. “I’m living the dream, being able to go to school in America and getting into the fire service.”
He joined Mountain View’s department less than a year ago as a deputy fire chief. After Fire Chief Brad Wardle announced plans to retire in May, Diaz was picked to succeed him on an interim basis. He expects to apply for the permanent position.
Given the recent news in U.S.-Cuba relations, Diaz said he has been reminded of his family’s former life. He still has relatives in Cuba, and he says he’s visited his home country in the past under a U.S. Treasury program allowing restricted travel.
Diaz believes that restoring relations will ultimately be a boon for the Cuban people.
“My dad always said the U.S. is what you put into it: You work hard and you’ll get ahead,” he said. “In Cuba right now, there are 11 million people who are literally hungry for work.”
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“I do sympathize with the view that we shouldn’t be dealing with a totalitarian government, but I also think that opening dialogue, it’ll allow the Cuban government to consider other options,” Diaz said. “When something hasn’t worked for 50 years, you might want to try other options.”
Also, we “dealt with” the totalitarian head of Cuba before he was overthrown and we are dealing with numerous totalitarian governments today–not least Russia and China.
We can’t avoid dealing with totalitarian governments, we just have to be sure we don’t make matters worse in those nations–aye, there’s the rub.
Big difference between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants. I have every praise and respect for people coming to this country legally. It’s the illegals that are the problem.
Cubans like him did not come here “legally,” you fool.
The only “Big difference” in your mind is your emotion when you see/read/hear something. Surely someone like a hispanic or black politician that shares your views (notice I am not calling you a conservative or liberal) will gain your “appreciation.”
Whether you are white or anything else, try realizing that Cubans came here in boats and ran away from bad conditions, just as Mexicans and other South/Central Americans do so. The only “BIG DIFFERENCE” here is the COMICAL *law* that allowed Cubans to be considered as refugees if they reached land. If, however, they were still out their on boats…in minds like yours and ICE, etc., they were somehow still “Illegals” and “aliens.”
If you like in the bay area, I assure you a ton of asians/indians here swooned their status one way or another. Don’t visualize PATRIOTIC heroes vetting them because they stood out as if every single one had a literal genius IQ.
You get my point…or maybe not. After all, you just posted a moronic statement similar to what empty skulls from the “DAT DER CONFEDERATE DIXIE YEEHAWWW WILL RISE AGAIN” location of the United States tend to post online.
Enjoy your pathetic, underhanded racist nonsense and feel free to stay in denial of being a part of the low-life racist types.