TAMPA, Fla. — This is a story about a Cuban political prisoner who is now a free American man living in Tampa.
“I was born in 1938 in the central region of Cuba. La Villa Province,” said Roberto Pizano. “My family consists of my father, my mother, and eight siblings. The situation in Cuba at the time wasn’t easy. Eight kids with only one man working!”
Roberto Pizano showed me a picture of himself as a 12-year-old boy in 1950. He had moved with his family from the countryside to the capital city of Havana for better opportunities.
Now, at 86 years old, he can still recall how he spent 18 years as a political prisoner after being caught by Fidel Castro’s army. We talked only after he prepared Cuban coffee, known for its strong but sweet flavor and thick consistency. “Coffee is a symbol for Cubans! There’s no household that won’t offer you coffee,” said Pizano.
In 1953, the Cuban Revolution was already underway.
“I joined the Cuban army, and two of my brothers did as well,” said Pizano.
He said he was ambushed and caught on the mountainside by Castro’s forces.
“They took a group of us and shot me. A shot here. They shot me in the head,” said Pizano as he showed me the top of his head.
He said they were taken to a tuberculosis hospital where they were tortured and housed in the basement with more than 400 other insurgents for three months. Sentenced to death, which was later commuted to 30 years, he spent his time in several prisons on an island called Isla de Pinos. He was even used as forced labor on sugar plantations. He shows me a scar he got from being cut with a bayonet by a guard while working.
Pizano had family in the United States and was released to Florida to be reunited with them in Tampa.
“They brought me to a Winn-Dixie, and I was dizzy. I was in a small space for 18 years and, so, to find yourself in a store that big with everything was incredible,” he explained.
Pizano has turned his emotional and physical pain into education. He wrote a book called Cicatrices En La Historia, translated as Scars In History, detailing his experience as a political prisoner. My last question to him was what he wanted his legacy to be.
“To pass down this bitter history to the youth so that what happened to us Cubans never happens again,” said Pizano.
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