TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — April 17, 1961 is a day Felix Rodriguez says he'll never forget.
He was one of the nearly 1,500 Cuban exiles involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
That's when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) carried out a years-long plan to overthrow Fidel Castro. The U.S. government trained Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. They hoped to see a non-communist shift to Cuba, one that would work alongside the U.S.
"I remember Mike Wallace one time asked me on '60 Minutes' whether it was an adventure- what I was doing. I say, for you and for a lot of Americans, very difficult to understand what is communism. You have to live, you have to go through it every day to know what communism is. And no one of you have experienced that," he said on the 63rd anniversary of the invasion.
On Wednesday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law more focus on teaching about communism.
Tampa-based Senator and Green Beret Veteran Jay Collins sponsored the bill.
"What this bill does, is it takes our truth, it takes the reality of what is going on with communism and its effect on communities, countries and populations, the deaths that it causes, and it makes it a very real thing to our youth. We have to teach them. Remember, what we teach our children today will be the reality of this nation tomorrow," he said.
Here's how his office explains the changes:
- Adds to existing Communist history standards with instruction on the history of Communism in the United States and the tactics of Communist movements.
- Authorizes the newly-established Institute for Freedom in the Americas at Miami Dade College to promote the importance of economic and individual freedoms as a means to advance human progress—specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- This institute will partner with the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom at Florida International University.
- Enables the Florida Department of State, in collaboration with the Florida Department of Education, to recommend to the Legislature the creation of a Florida-based museum on the history of Communism.
- Prepares students to withstand indoctrination on Communism at colleges and universities.
Changes in the public classroom take effect beginning with the 2026-2027 school year.
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