Welcome to Real Talk with Tina and Ann!

March 25, 2026

Returning to the Place that Made you: Identity and finding Lost Memories with Mario Cartaya

Send us Fan Mail This week’s episode is one everyone needs to hear—a story of miracles, identity, and the kind of closure most people never expect to find. In his book Journey Back into the Vault: In Search of My Faded Cuban Childhood Footprints, Mario Cartaya shares a life that began in Havana and was forever changed when he fled Cuba at just eight years old. He went on to build an extraordinary life in the United States as a celebrated architect, shaping communities across South Florida and...

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Send us Fan Mail

This week’s episode is one everyone needs to hear—a story of miracles, identity, and the kind of closure most people never expect to find.

In his book Journey Back into the Vault: In Search of My Faded Cuban Childhood Footprints, Mario Cartaya shares a life that began in Havana and was forever changed when he fled Cuba at just eight years old. He went on to build an extraordinary life in the United States as a celebrated architect, shaping communities across South Florida and earning national recognition, including a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol in his honor. He even worked alongside leaders like John Kerry, helping bridge conversations between countries.

But decades later, something still called him back.

After 56 years, Mario returned to Cuba—and what happened next is almost impossible to believe. In a moment that feels nothing short of miraculous, Fidel Castro’s son personally led him to his family’s long-lost graves. There, Mario stood, prayed, and began reconnecting with the pieces of himself he thought were gone. Along the way, he unexpectedly met a 90-year-old relative simply by driving down the street, as if the past had been waiting for him all along.

This isn’t just a story about going back to a place.
It’s about meeting your younger self again.
About rediscovering memories.
About finding identity, belonging, and a sense of peace that no amount of success could replace.

And this is only Part 1.

Go to Mario Cartaya's website at Mario Cartaya – Journey Back Into The Vault

Support the show

@Real Talk with Tina and Ann

Chapters

00:00 - Welcome And The Memory Vault

02:53 - Childhood In Havana Before Exile

04:22 - Che Guevara And A Forced Exit

07:54 - When Early Memories Go Dark

10:41 - Grief Without Goodbyes

12:49 - Achievement As A Love Letter

14:05 - Miami Culture Shock And Halloween

18:01 - Parents’ Strength And Music At Home

21:57 - The Moment He Chooses Return

25:37 - Landing In Cuba And First Flashbacks

29:19 - A House Preserved For 56 Years

35:53 - Finding Family In A Fading Town

39:43 - The Balcony And Meeting His Child

49:25 - Cemetery Closure And A Shock Call

58:08 - Part One Ends Part Two Tease

Transcript

WEBVTT

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Welcome to Real Talk with Tina and Anne.

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I am Anne.

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Today's conversation is about something deeply human: memory, identity, and what happens when parts of our past become locked away inside of us.

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My guest today is Mario Cartaya, author of the memoir Journey Back into the Vault in Search of My Faved Cuban childhood footprints.

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Journey Back into the Vault is a deeply personal memoir about a Cuban-born American who returns to his homeland after more than half a century in search of the childhood memories he lost when his family fled the country during political upheaval.

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Mario was born in Havana in 1951 and spent part of his childhood in Cuba before his family was forced to leave and start a new life in the United States.

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That sudden separation from his homeland and extended family left a lasting emotional impact.

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And over time, many of his earliest memories faded from consciousness almost as if they had been locked away inside a psychological vault.

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Imagine leaving everything that you knew before you were even old enough to understand what was happening.

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Your home, your language, your culture, your memories.

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Mario spent decades building a life in America, but something fascinating happened along the way.

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The memories of his earliest childhood years became buried somewhere deep inside his mind.

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Then more than half a century later, he returned to Cuba 56 years later, not as a tourist, but as a man searching for something hidden inside himself.

00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:00.159
His journey back became more than a physical trip.

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It became a search for identity, belonging, and the pieces of his childhood that had been buried by time and circumstance.

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Mario began to recover the memories and feelings that had been hidden for decades.

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It's a story about exile and ultimately finding peace with the child you once were.

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Mario, thank you so much for being here today.

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And thank you so much for having me here and for this wonderful interview.

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You know, I want to start at the beginning because you were born in Havana in 1951 and you spent the first years of your life there when all the political upheaval was going on and your family was forced to leave.

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For listeners who may not know that history, and I mean, actually, your father's life was being threatened.

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Can you paint a picture for us of what exactly was going on?

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Well, I I grew up in a middle class family, and in my home, everyone had a college education, and both sides uh would favor a different part of uh their education, right?

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I being my Mateo side, they were all very artistic, uh musical, art drawing, that kind of a thing.

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And I grew up with them.

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I grew up with them playing their instruments.

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My mother was a classical pianist, so she would always play the piano and and as they played, we talked.

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Uh, the other half of my family, my Cartaya side, um, my paternal side was was more accountants and money and this type of thing.

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Um, so I I grew up in a nice combination of right side and left brain, um, where I it was wonderful for my education.

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Everything was wonderful.

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We lived in a big home uh where uh I lived with my grandparents and my uncles.

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It's an old Spanish uh way of living where the family, the extended family, lives together and you're with them your whole life, right?

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You become uh a child to many adults, uh their own child, right?

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So it's a wonderful way of learning, a wonderful way of uh of loving, a wonderful way of uh knowing that you belong to something greater than yourself.

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Everything changed.

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Um when Castro came to power uh a year later, uh he made the announcement that they were going to confiscate all American properties on the island.

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My father, who was an accountant, his clients were all American.

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Uh Frigid Air Corporation, the Sylvania uh group, Emerson, they were all his clients.

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So sooner rather than later, three uh machine gun toting rebels entered office demanding his um ledgers with all the information on his client, his American client's properties in the island.

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Oh my.

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My father, uh, out of loyalty refused.

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So he was detained.

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In his detention, he refused a second time, and they took him to go see the infamous Che Guevara, uh, the uh Argentinian Kerrilla warfighter that was trying to bring communism to South America, who lived in Cuba during those first years of Castro's uh revolution.

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Uh and my father denied Guevara.

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Well, you didn't do that back then.

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So Guevara, furious with my my father, drew his gun and said, Ignacio, that was my father's name.

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I know that you have two kids.

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Uh don't make me use this.

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And he showed him the gun and I said, Give me what I want.

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So, with that, thankfully, he also had a friend, uh a lieutenant, they were friends since kindergarten.

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They grew up together.

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He stood between my father and Guevara and said, Shay, hang on, I know Ignacio, little bullheaded, but give me until noon, and I promise I can get you uh his ledger.

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So he did.

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He went with my dad, my dad gave the ledgers, and when they brought it back to Guevara, Guevara's last words to my father was, uh, you're you're now uh labeled um anti-revolutionary.

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If I were you, I would leave the island as quickly as you can, because I can't guarantee your future safety.

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And so we thought that he was dead.

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He was gone for about three days, and back then, if you disappeared, yeah, three days, you were usually dead.

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This is 1960.

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So he finally calls and says, I'm coming home.

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The whole family got together, and then I watched him from the second floor balcony of my home as he asked my extended family for permission to leave Cuba with my mother, my brother, and me.

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I imagine an eight-year-old boy happy that his father is home, now having heard that they were gonna kill him.

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And that's why he gave him the ledgers, and that's why we had to leave.

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Um and so that day my my life changed.

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I knew that my time in Cuba was coming to an end, and I knew that I would have to then travel to the U.S., which was exciting too.

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I mean, the U.S.

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was the home of Mighty Mouse and Major League Baseball and hot dogs and all this wonderful thing, cowboys and Indians.

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So it wasn't that bad leaving, except once you leave and you never see your extended family again, the grandparents, the uncles that I grew up with, they all died and we never saw them again.

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Yeah.

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Then it becomes a trauma.

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Oh my goodness.

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How horrific.

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I mean, in one second you're here, and in the next second, you're here.

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I mean, and and then what was so unique about your story is that you much of your life, those early years, were completely hidden from you.

00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:11.040
I mean, you couldn't remember anything before your 10th birthday.

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Before this journey back to Cuba, how did you piece your life together?

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Were those early years something that you understood through stories your family told you?

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Photographs, fragments, or was it mostly like just a blank space?

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It's kind of an interesting mix of everything, right?

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My parents grew up uh telling us stories, and you know, we we had a wonderful family of conversation.

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We love to talk to each other and express each other's and communicate that way, right?

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Okay, yeah.

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And so I knew some stories, and then we had some pictures that we took with us when we left.

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So I knew some still black and white pictures.

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So at night sometimes I would see those pictures, but I didn't know the context.

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And I would wake up in the middle of the night, you know, kind of like um flustered because I knew that I saw that picture for a reason in my in my dreams, but I didn't know why.

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It's funny.

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Even during sleeping, uh my subconscious was controlling my mind.

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So uh finally, after um a a wonderful uh award that I received where they flew a flag uh in the US Congress in my honor, or over the Capitol, over over the US Capitol and my honor, I couldn't remember how I got from there to that point.

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And that's when I decided it's time for me to go back and try to remember.

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Try to know who trying to know not just who I became, that I knew.

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I knew I'd come here and I've become a a renowned architect.

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What I didn't know was what was the whole story?

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Why why act the way I do?

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Why do I feel the way I do?

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All those things that that shape the way you are when you're young.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, that is such an important piece.

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I mean, everybody needs that in order to figure out who you are.

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I I mean, I it I think that you do.

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You left Cuba.

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Was the part of your life from going from Cuba and landing in the United States?

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I mean, you painted it as this wonderful place coming to the United States.

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But was that blank too when you got here?

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Or when did your memories actually begin?

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I had very few memories.

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Um, but I think that they did not disappear as I was flying uh to come here.

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I think they disappeared slowly as some of these memories tormented me.

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You know, back then, uh in 1960, there was no communication with Cuba.

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And in the years that followed, with the Bay of Pigs and the Cuba Missile Crisis and everything else that happened, there was no telephone uh uh combinations that you could somehow get in touch with your family there.

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There was no letters.

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The letters that we would receive were many times redacted, many times cut out with scissors, you know, places.

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So it was very minimal information, if any, that we were getting about the family we left behind, except through telegraphs.

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And the telegraphs were limited to eight letters.

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So we will get things like your grandfather died.

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That's it.

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And you don't know how or when or whatever.

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So it was very, very difficult to see your family go one after another after another after another.

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And by 1968, eight years after I got here, all of my grand my grandparents and even my uncle were over.

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And I think during that process of grieving and and the frustrations of not being able to get in touch with them, the impotence, the impotence of not being able to do anything about it.

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Not even to call them and tell them you love them, I think that that little that little descent is what finally turned off the uh subconscious to allow me to concentrate and then become, you know, the best that I possibly could be, the best version of myself.

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Yeah.

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I mean, the mind is kind, really.

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I mean, it it can protect us from our own pain.

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And it sounds like that's what it was doing.

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Can I ask you how this has shaped you into the person that you became?

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That's a great question, right?

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Um, I became a well-known architect.

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And why that happened, I think that in my subconscious as well, not almost, but in the subconscious that I grew up with, not having my grandparents with me, not having my uncles with me, uh made me want to prove to them that everything that they used to tell me when I was growing up was true.

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And I think that without knowing it, uh, I pushed myself for them.

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Okay.

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And I never accepted mediocracy, I never accepted anything that wasn't just, you know, the very best.

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Uh I guess to to make it right, to make them know, wherever they were, that yeah, all the effects that they had on me uh made me into this person that I am.

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That was, I think, the big incentives uh that I had without even knowing uh what I was doing.

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Uh going back, however, is what really, really made a big difference on me.

00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:18.159
And we're we're absolutely going to get to that part of this story, but I want to ask you, you know, as a young immigrant arriving in Florida, did you ever feel like you were stuck between two worlds?

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Like, did you ever feel a part of either one, or were you like stuck in the middle?

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I felt that way my whole life.

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Really?

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Except after coming back.

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Okay.

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Because there was a part of me that couldn't remember, and that part had a play in me, but not a conscious play.

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So there was always that.

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I was the kid that um I was friends with everybody.

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So I had American friends, okay.

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I played football, I, you know, I was a good student, I played baseball, you know.

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Uh I was that guy.

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I'm always wanting to prove that I belonged, always wanting to prove that I was worthy of having this uh accolades that I grew up getting from the teachers, from my friends, and and that kind of a thing.

00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.960
Um I will tell you a really funny story, right?

00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:17.600
Okay.

00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:31.200
I I knew about American culture a little because my some of my father's clients, when they would travel to Cuba to have meetings with my dad, they would always come home.

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Uh, and my mother and this other lady that helped us would always cook them a good Cuban meal.

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And they always wanted to get their business over with so they could come over and enjoy a good meal with us, with a family, right?

00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:51.519
And uh to me, the Americans that came over being little uh were not Americans.

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They were Cubans that spoke English.

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It was it was that kind of a view from a child.

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I saw no difference.

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The school that I went to, the Edison Institute, um, was a prep school, and they taught a little English, just enough to get by, you know, which helped me when I first came here.

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At least I knew some basic words uh that would either get me out of trouble or get me in trouble, you know, depending on the context that I used to.

00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:21.519
Right.

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I learned uh I learned that very, very soon.

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Um but one one fun one funny story, right?

00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:32.399
So we leave Cuba, the plane lands here.

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It's still like 10 o'clock in the morning by the time the plane lands, and that afternoon I figured I'm gonna go for a walk.

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I'm in America, I'm in Miami, I'm gonna go for a walk and see what America looks like.

00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:45.440
Really, I'm hoping it's gonna snow.

00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:46.399
It was November.

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I'm hoping it's gonna snow, there was no snow.

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But I went for a walk.

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And I began seeing that in front of everybody's homes, there are ghosts and there are monsters and there's people with knives in their heads, that kind of thing.

00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:03.919
And I got scared.

00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:10.240
To my dad, and I said, Um, do they practice voodoo in the United States?

00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:13.680
And he's like, No, no, they don't do voodoo.

00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:14.640
Uh why?

00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:15.839
And I told him why.

00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:20.000
And he goes, Oh, Mario, it was uh Halloween two weeks ago.

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And these are people that haven't picked up the stuff they had in their front yards.

00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:28.559
And they displayed ghosts and monsters and devils and this.

00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:33.440
Yeah, yeah, but it's it's all in fun because they'll get they'll give you candy.

00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:35.119
Can we go out tonight?

00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:36.400
Oh no, no, no, no.

00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:37.519
Thanksgiving is all.

00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:44.240
So that was my first my first understanding of the American people was that.

00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.880
Oh my gosh, that's oh, that's hilarious.

00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:49.839
Yeah, I know.

00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:50.880
I know it was funny.

00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:52.240
Funny story.

00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:54.880
Yeah, that is really interesting.

00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:57.359
I mean, you guys didn't celebrate Halloween over there.

00:17:57.599 --> 00:17:58.720
No, no idea.

00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:00.640
Oh my gosh.

00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:10.000
I I I wanted to ask you about your parents because you know, when you look back now as an adult, did you have conversations with your parents?

00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:13.279
Did they carry all of this quietly?

00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:18.000
Do you know what the moment was like for them having to leave?

00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:19.599
Oh, very, very difficult.

00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:29.839
And uh when my grandfather was dying, um, my dad asked me never to cry in front of my mother because she was distraught, right?

00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:43.200
Imagine losing your parents, never seeing them again, you know, your uncles, the aunts, everybody that we left behind little by little, every year somebody would die, and it was just like a constant drip of death.

00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:51.359
So I I know that it was tough for her, but what my mom did uh to kind of help herself was play the piano.

00:18:51.599 --> 00:19:08.079
You know it even here, we were able to buy a used piano that she could play in, and it helped everyone because she would play her music, and um, they would bring the friends that they were making in the U.S.

00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:10.240
They couldn't afford to go out anywhere.

00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:11.920
You know, we were trying to start again.

00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:18.000
So they would invite him to the house, and my mother would play and they would all sing or dance or whatever.

00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:22.240
And it was a very healthy way to grow like that.

00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:26.319
You know, yes, there are troubles, but it's okay.

00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:28.319
You know, we will get by.

00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:40.880
And and this one time, uh, my mom looked at me and I was kind of sad, and and she said, uh, Mayito, that means Little Mario, uh, don't feel that way.

00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:44.880
As long as we're together, everything is gonna be okay.

00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.160
Those are words that have come back to me thousands of times.

00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:49.440
And I love it.

00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:53.920
No matter what, as long as we're together, it's gonna be okay.

00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:58.799
We're here for each other, we're here to help each other, and that's exactly the way that it was.

00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:06.559
It was beautiful, uh difficult, yes, painful, yes, but also beautiful.

00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:09.519
It is very beautiful.

00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:13.519
That what I I want to say that to my kids now.

00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:20.240
You know, I mean that's just it just uh brings a connection that can't be divided.

00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:22.480
It it can't be, no matter what.

00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:29.440
What did it do for you to realize what your parents sacrificed?

00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:40.000
Well, I I I I've been speaking a lot for years, you know, with my architecture and all these award ceremonies.

00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:52.559
Uh, they always ask me to speak, and I always tell them that um I dedicated my life to them to show them that their effort of coming here was worth it.

00:20:53.279 --> 00:21:06.160
It's not about me so much as it is having to prove that everything that happened uh led to these accomplishments and this great life that I have lived.

00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:12.640
That's uh probably the the biggest impact uh that anything has ever had in my life.

00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:28.079
I I know why I'm here, I know the challenges they faced, I know the hardships and pain that they felt that they felt, but yet they always made it seem like tomorrow was gonna be better than today.

00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:30.799
They always lived with an optimism.

00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:34.559
But hey, as long as we're together, it'll be fine.

00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:37.759
And it was, it was for all of us.

00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:42.000
I love this because it really is all about perspective, isn't it?

00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:43.920
It really is.

00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:54.000
I mean, we all we go through such hard times, but it is it sounds like your parents were so strong, and then they passed that down to you.

00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:55.200
What a gift!

00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:56.160
Yes.

00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:59.759
The title of your book, Journey Back into the Vault.

00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.880
Is such a powerful metaphor.

00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:06.480
I mean, it suggests the memories weren't gone.

00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:09.519
You know, I mean, they were just simply locked away.

00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:17.759
And when you decided to return to Cuba after 56 years, what made you feel ready to open that vault?

00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:25.759
I was part of the committee that assisted President Obama in his reproachment return to Cuba.

00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:26.319
Okay.

00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:31.440
I met with uh the person that was in charge of that committee was John Kerry.

00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:35.680
And John Kerry and I kind of struck up a nice friendship.

00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:45.440
And we had a lot of conversations about him going back to Vietnam after the Vietnam War and making peace with Vietnam's generals.

00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:46.240
Wow.

00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:51.920
And that kind of enlightened me a little bit.

00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:54.960
That really peace lies within yourself.

00:22:56.480 --> 00:22:58.240
You just need to go get it.

00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:11.440
You need to be confident enough that yes, I can I can bring peace to me if only I can figure out how to do it or put myself in a position to be able to do it.

00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:17.599
So when when the group went back to Cuba with the president, I didn't go.

00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:25.519
Because I did not feel like I wanted to, like I was ready to do something like that.

00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:31.839
But I did watch the president's uh address to the Cuban people uh in Havana.

00:23:32.880 --> 00:23:37.920
And he started with this wonderful poem that was written by José Martí.

00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:43.839
Jose Martí is uh a Cuban patriot during the Spanish-American War.

00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:55.599
Uh and he had this um book that he wrote, in which he wrote, I cultivate a white rose for my friend.

00:23:56.319 --> 00:23:59.440
I also cultivate a white rose for my enemy.

00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:01.119
In peace.

00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:03.599
And that's how he started his speech.

00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:12.319
And all that I could do was think of John Kerry, think of myself, think of my grandparents, think of everything.

00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:20.480
And that moment, I turned to my son who was watching it with me, and I said, buddy, I gotta go back.

00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:23.599
And he says, he said, I knew you would.

00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:34.720
That was the uh enlightenment, that was the moment that the candle lit up and said, You're going back.

00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:40.400
You need this, you need to know who you are, you need to piece your life together somehow.

00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:42.960
You need to piece your life together.

00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:44.559
And I did.

00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:47.599
Oh my gosh, that is so beautiful.

00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:50.480
Well, how old was your son, by the way?

00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:56.240
At that time, uh, he was about 22, 23 years old.

00:24:56.480 --> 00:24:57.839
Okay, all right.

00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:00.079
Has he ever been?

00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:03.279
I took him with me the following year.

00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:05.759
Okay, interesting.

00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:10.400
Um, I do want to talk about you returning back to Cuba.

00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:18.960
And after more, you know, the fit more than a century later, 56 years from the place where your life began.

00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:35.759
And when your plane landed in Cuba, like if you can place yourself there in that moment, what was that like, that feeling that came over you when you actually landed and you were on Cuban land?

00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:44.160
Well, um, there was a little process that happened uh of accepting where I am, right?

00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:51.680
At first, I'm landing and certain feels, feelings of guilt um found me, you know.

00:25:51.839 --> 00:26:01.039
But then at the same time, uh something inside me said, fine, you know, uh I know where this is coming from.

00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:05.839
But I'm just gonna go through it because I want to.

00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:08.160
You're not gonna conquer me.

00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:10.559
I am gonna go through this.

00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:16.640
And then as I began to come into the terminal, I realized this is the same terminal.

00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:19.680
This is the same space from which I left.

00:26:19.839 --> 00:26:21.839
That was the first memory that came back.

00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:22.400
Okay.

00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:35.759
This is the same place from which I left in much turmoil, in much pain, uh, confusion, people screaming, you know, uh, people crying.

00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:44.000
You know, it it wasn't a fun place to be, as all of us Cubans were leaving on that airplane uh on that plane, right?

00:26:44.240 --> 00:26:45.839
Uh, but I'm back.

00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:52.640
But then again, right after that, first thought hit me, then the next thought here hit me.

00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:56.480
And again, that was the first time that I see what's happening.

00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:02.079
Because the next thought was, ah, but I am not leaving today.

00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:14.559
A son of this country is returning, and this is my portal to happen.

00:27:17.119 --> 00:27:27.920
Funny how when when the uh memories begin to return, you understand why they're returning.

00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:33.359
I thought about the past, stopped on the dying.

00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:36.559
Now I think, okay, I'm back.

00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:42.720
I gotta get through this in order to find what I'm looking for.

00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:46.880
This is the portal that I have to get through.

00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:49.839
And it was a beautiful realization.

00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:56.079
Of course, just minutes later, I see this old man that I saw in Miami with the huge teddy bear, right?

00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:07.759
And I realize some lucky girl or boy in Havana is gonna be getting this big old, you know, stuffed bear from this old man.

00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:17.359
And just as I walked outside, there's the old man, here comes a little girl, maybe nine, the age that I left, right, running towards him.

00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:25.039
And immediately she goes, Abuelo, which means grandfather, and jumped up into his arms and hugged him.

00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:30.880
The old man began to cry, and then he said, Honey, this bear needs a friend.

00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:35.839
And it was good.

00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:39.519
Love exists in the island.

00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:42.000
Let's go find it.

00:28:43.279 --> 00:28:51.519
And little by little, it was a welcoming that got me ready to do everything that I did.

00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:57.839
Of course, things that happened, I would have never thought that they would ever occur.

00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:01.119
There were surprises in every corner.

00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:13.119
Well, you you went back to your home, your school, the streets where you once played, and family grave sites.

00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:15.599
I mean, what was it like?

00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:18.720
What were some of those surprises that happened?

00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:20.240
Well, imagine this.

00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:23.519
I just got back, I just saw the old man with the the girl.

00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:31.680
So from there we make it to the hotel, laid our bags down, and our driver that my friends and I, I went with two friends, right?

00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:36.799
The driver that my friends and I had hired is already there at the hotel to take us.

00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:43.279
First place we go to is the last house that I lived in Cuba, the house from where we left.

00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:51.680
And I had heard years before from someone that there was a man called Hector that lived in that house.

00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:54.720
We parked the car, we get out of the car, we walk.

00:29:54.880 --> 00:30:03.200
There's this man talked in with two people on the other side of the uh changling fence that protects the property.

00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:08.240
As soon as they saw me with my two friends, the two guys that were there left.

00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:10.000
The old man didn't.

00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:12.000
He stayed there and looked at me.

00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:16.880
So I walked up to him and I said, Excuse me, are you Hector?

00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:18.559
And he goes, Yes, I am.

00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:19.680
And you are.

00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:22.720
And I said, Mario Cartaya Mateo.

00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:25.440
Cartaya is my paternal surname.

00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:28.000
Mateo is my maternal surname.

00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:35.920
So I'm introducing me as you would in Cuba, where you use your paternal and maternal names so they know what families you belong to.

00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:41.759
I'm off the plane, I'm maybe an hour and a half off the plane.

00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:43.920
And he looks at me.

00:30:44.319 --> 00:30:51.200
He turns pale and he goes, Mario Cartaya Mateo, I've been waiting for you a long time.

00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:54.720
That's my first welcome.

00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:56.079
Oh wow.

00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:00.640
And I looked at him, and I figured I'm not ready to ask him why.

00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:03.359
Let me get past the shock.

00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:11.839
So I showed him some pictures I had of my family and I and the house, and he's naming them.

00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:12.960
Oh my god.

00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:16.160
Then he says, Your uncle was my best friend.

00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:20.960
And then with that, I felt more comfortable.

00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:22.160
He knew my family.

00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:23.039
Right.

00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:29.359
So I asked him, Hector, what did you mean by I've been waiting for you a long time?

00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:31.119
So he goes, You don't know?

00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:32.319
And I said, No.

00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:33.839
He goes, Come with me.

00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:36.720
So he takes me inside the house.

00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:42.640
And I walked in, and immediately a thousand memories came back.

00:31:42.799 --> 00:31:43.440
Oh my god.

00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:51.440
The furniture that we used, the house, the colors, the tile, everything is identical.

00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:53.279
He even said, look at this curio.

00:31:53.920 --> 00:32:08.880
I look in the curio, the dining sets, the utensils, the jello balls, even the beer glass that my uncle used to use uh for his um beer, it's all there.

00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:13.440
And of course, so emotional.

00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:14.480
I'm back.

00:32:14.799 --> 00:32:16.880
This is like it it never changed.

00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:20.240
Like if I had left the day before.

00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:24.240
And so I said, Why is everything the same?

00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:27.200
And he said again, you don't know, do you?

00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:29.680
No, Hector, I really don't know.

00:32:30.640 --> 00:32:32.480
And then he reminded me.

00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:54.480
He says, When we found out that your grandfather was dying, uh my your your uncle, Marcus, uh made it seem like I lived here so that you all wouldn't lose wouldn't lose your home uh to the uh uh confiscation efforts of the government.

00:32:54.799 --> 00:33:03.200
So I lived here all these years under one condition that I would not change anything and give it all back to you when you return.

00:33:03.359 --> 00:33:04.559
So here it is for you.

00:33:04.720 --> 00:33:06.880
If you want it, it's all yours.

00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:09.279
I never knew that.

00:33:09.519 --> 00:33:10.559
I never knew that.

00:33:10.799 --> 00:33:16.240
He was been waiting for me 56 years to return, which of course we never did.

00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:20.319
So I said, Look, I'm I'm only here uh for a week.

00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:22.559
I don't plan to stay.

00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:24.799
I just want you to be my friend.

00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:28.480
And he goes, No, I'm I won't be your friend, I'll be family.

00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:31.039
I said, Okay, then you can be family.

00:33:31.359 --> 00:33:34.319
And we made a friendship that has been beautiful.

00:33:34.960 --> 00:33:37.039
I mean, a 50-year promise.

00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:37.920
Yeah.

00:33:38.559 --> 00:33:41.599
Who makes that kind of promise and then keeps it?

00:33:42.160 --> 00:33:47.039
I mean, that kind of loyalty and humanity is very rare.

00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:48.079
Yeah.

00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:56.319
What did it feel like for you to see that and realize that someone had honored your family's story for all of those years?

00:33:56.640 --> 00:34:00.319
Well, the first thing I learned in the airport was there's love in Cuba.

00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:00.960
Yeah.

00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:10.880
Then I said there is honesty, there is dignity, there is integrity in Cuba.

00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:12.960
This is not what I thought it was.

00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:16.960
The demons are gone.

00:34:17.679 --> 00:34:19.920
There are no demons anymore.

00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:21.679
It's just us.

00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:37.679
What a completely different perspective on how you lived for all those years believing what Cuba was like, and here you are getting a completely, I mean, eye-opening experience.

00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:39.679
That's really amazing.

00:34:39.920 --> 00:34:46.400