The Orphan

Over 14,000 children comprised the exodus of unaccompanied minors from Cuba soon after the communist revolution of 1959. I was one of those children, one of the youngest at age 6. This is my true story, as told through the eyes of a child. The story is described chronologically, starting with our affluent life in Havana, then upon being exiled, how I wound up at a cloistered convent for orphans where physical abuse was as much a part of the rituals as praying. When authorities closed the convent I was adopted by a large family where I labored for years until my parents escaped from Cuba. Though reunited at last with my parents, painfully difficult years followed as we attempted in vain to become a family once again. The many years of separation from my parents and abuse forged the basis for a life of both abandonment and success.