Americans by Choice

By Josefina Vazquez M.D.

Americans by Choice is the story of Josefina (Dedieu) Vazquez. Her childhood in Cuba and her life in the United States are chronicled in this autobiography. She married a fellow graduate of Havana Medical School, Hiram Vazquez. The reader will follow her in her quest for a better life for herself, her husband, and her children. She lived in Havana and other locations in Cuba prior to arriving in the United States, where she lived in Chicago, Illinois, prior to moving to Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Josefinas story is compelling and filled with authentic details. Most of all, she is an unforgettable character. Reading Americans by Choice is like spending time getting to know this amazing woman.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503583832

Josefina Vazquez M.D.

Josefina (Dedieu) Vazquez was born in Cuba in 1927. She was one of four children born to her parents. Her father was a security guard and her mother a teacher. They lived a modest life in Oriente, the easternmost province of the country. At the age of four, she moved to Havana with her two aunts. She was educated and groomed to become a doctor, just like her aunt Maria Julia. In the early 1950s, Josefina met Hiram Vazquez at the University of Havana Medical School. They were study buddies and eventually fell in love. After earning their MD degrees, they married in 1953. They had two children, a daughter in 1954 and a son in 1956. They lived and worked in a rural community called Guasimal, in the south central region of the island. Young and idealist, Josefina’s husband was an active follower of Castro’s revolution. However, when they discovered that Fidel was affiliated with the Communist government of the USSR and planned to remain in position as “elected” president of the republic, they decided to leave Cuba in search of a government where they could thrive. Josefina followed Hiram to the USA. They restarted their medical careers by passing the rigorous exam required for foreign medical graduates to practice in the USA. Then they recompleted their internships. They also took the Texas State Medical Board Exam to practice in that state. Since Oklahoma accepts the Texas credentials, they were eligible to work in both. They were offered positions with the Veterans Administration and moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma. A year later, they started a private practice there. After twenty years, they retired and remained in Ardmore. Josefina’s life was full of upheavals and changes. Everyone who hears her tell her story suggests she should write a book. So she finally decided to acquiesce to their requests and wrote her autobiography. She is an intelligent person, a dedicated doctor, and a giving mother.

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Copyright © 2015 by Josefina (Dedieu) Vazquez, M.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 07/17/2015

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Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 My Childhood Years

Chapter 2 University Years

Chapter 3 The Guasimal Years

Chapter 4 The Revolution

Chapter 5 Life With Castro

Chapter 6 Matanzas – Trying To Leave

Chapter 7 Leaving Cuba

Chapter 8 Our Lady Of Charity

Chapter 9 Spain

Chapter 10 Chicago

Chapter 11 The Veterans Center

Chapter 12 Private Practice

Chapter 13 The House On Sunny Lane

Chapter 14 The Empty Nest

Chapter 15 We Become Americans

Chapter 16 We Break The Law

Chapter 17 Leaving Private Practice

Chapter 18 Illness

Chapter 19 Our Lives Now

Chapter 20 Last Chapter

Dedicated to my adult children, Elsa and Hiram M. and to the love of my life, Hiram F.

PREFACE

May you live in interesting times.

The ancient Chinese curse applies to my life; it has been interesting, filled with positive and negative, yin and yang, but never dull. This book is an invitation to share my interesting life. Perhaps you will find a lesson or two or at least be entertained for a short while.

I have titled my work Americans By Choice, and once you have read it, you will know some of the adventures that befell our Cuban family from pre-Castro days through the present. I hereby invite you to share my interesting life.

CHAPTER 1

My childhood years

My mother’s name was Ana Luisa de Lara y Mena; my father was José Dedieu Hechavarria. We lived on San Gerónimo Street between San Agustín and Reloj in Santiago de Cuba, the easternmost area of the island. They had 4 children; I was the second one. Mom was a school teacher and my dad was a security guard at the huge Bacardi rum factory. We had three small bedrooms and a courtyard patio where the children would play. None of us was allowed in the master bedroom. In this bedroom, next to the marital bed, there was a small nightstand with a drawer that was always locked. My dad kept its key along with other important keys always attached to his belt. No one was supposed to see what was in that drawer, especially the small children. My older sister and I, always curious, were looking for a way to see what was in that drawer.

My father took his job very seriously. He had the responsibility of guarding the back entrance to the factory where he worked. He used to come home from his night shift in the morning, take a shower and eat breakfast. Then he would lie down and rest.

One morning, while in the shower, he left the door to the master bedroom slightly ajar and the famous key to the forbidden drawer on the door’s keyhole hanging with the other keys. Bingo! Julita (my sister) and I took a peek at what was inside: Dad’s ID badge, his other keys, a large whistle and …… a gun! That was the big secret! Julia and I knew nothing about guns, but we knew they could kill. We ran quietly out of the room and never said a word about it, not even to each other. From that day forward we never even came close to the master bedroom. Our curiosity had been satisfied forever.

My parents were hard-working people. They had a simple life, with no ambitions to climb the corporate or social ladders. They never left Santiago, always raising kids. When my mom gave birth to the first two of her babies, she went to Havana, where my aunt Maria Julia was a doctor. My aunt insisted that a doctor was the most qualified person to deliver all of us, instead of a midwife as it was customary in the 1920s. She was right. Almost all our family lived in Santiago. There was always a family member who would take care of everything else in the house while Mom was in Havana awaiting her bundles of joy.

I was born on September 28, 1927, but my dad did not take the information to the Records office until October 10. So my official birth date is 10-10-27.

My sister Julita, the first born, never wanted to be called the eldest. She never liked to be considered old.

By the time my mother was ready to deliver her third baby, she did not have time to make the journey westward because he was premature. Jose Luis was a small baby, 8 weeks premature, what we used to call sietemesino. It was a fast and easy process. The midwife delivered him at home. He was my mother’s only boy.

For the fourth child, Martha, whom nobody was expecting, Mom stayed home because it looked as if it would be an easy delivery. Wrong! Martha was the largest of the four children and gave my mom a very difficult labor. My sister Martha took after our grandmother Martina and grew to be almost six feet tall and big-boned.

My mother was sweet and gentle. Having to raise four kids, breast-feeding them, doing her house chores and going to work every day took a toll on her health. Besides, she was a heavy smoker, almost unheard of for women then. Mom always tried to be all things to all people, which was normal for a wife of her era. She always kept a smile on her face no matter what.

My two aunts who lived in Havana had been married for years, but neither of them had children. My oldest aunt, who lived in Santiago, never married. It was ironic that the only one of the four sisters with children had four of them.

Besides her two sisters in Havana, my mother’s older sister was named Justina. All of us called her Nenita. Mom also had a brother named Justo Pastor. He was the youngest of the five siblings, but they used to say that Maria Julia was the baby at her request.

Uncle Justo went to dental school in Havana. He would practice in Nuevitas, Camaguey. He was married three times. He had one son with the first wife, two sons and a daughter with wife number two, and finally one more boy with this third wife. His last child was the only one who studied, went to University and became an MD. The others went different ways, had different businesses and disappeared from my life. The one who became a doctor was a cardiologist.

Once a year the sisters from Havana used to travel to Santiago to see our branch of the family. Both aunts wanted to raise one of my mother’s children for three reasons: to ease Mom’s burden, to have a child of their own for whom they could care and to have a young person who would be a companion. Guess what? I volunteered to accompany my aunts back to Havana. I was so sensitive and so affectionate that when I heard that those nice ladies didn’t have any kids, my little heart went to them. Julita said no and that ruled her out. As the eldest, she also had said emphatically that the boy had to stay with Mom because he was always sick and needed special attention. Martha was still a baby. So at the ripe old age of 4, I volunteered. I was happy because at my age I didn’t realize that this would be forever. My years with my aunt Elvira and her husband (Uncle Manuel) were as perfect as possible for a 4-year-old far from her siblings. Elvira and Manuel dedicated themselves to raise me, letting me know that I was the sunshine in their lives. Financially they were in the low-middle class category; both hard-working and money-saving people. The only one in that household able to get everything she could possibly want was me. I had the best food, the best shoes, the best little dresses. I remember that during those years (the 1930s), the fashion craze for girls were the Shirley Temple look-alike outfits. My aunt Elvira could not afford to buy me those dresses, hats, gloves and shoes that were in the big windows of the very expensive stores such as El Encanto in the business district of Havana. She would take me there and I would select the outfit I liked. As if by magic, two days later I had my outfit. She was an accomplished seamstress, also good at knitting and crochet. In two words, she was a perfect homemaker.

For income, Aunt Elvira had a small private school at home. She was a certified teacher and had been working at public schools until she brought me home. Then she opted for this arrangement so she could be with me full-time. She home-schooled me until I started in public school. Elvira was also an accomplished housewife. She would cook, clean and made my clothes. She also was accomplished at knitting and crochet. I remember a beautiful bedspread which boasted two large peacocks with elaborate crocheted tails extending down and across their bed. She made it. Every evening after sundown, my aunt would take down the bedspread, fold it carefully and place it across a special bench at the foot of the bed. Every morning she would lovingly unfold it and lay it on the bed.

To me, Aunt Elvira was a beautiful woman inside and out. She had beautiful facial features, plenty of dark, curly hair which she wore pulled back in a French twist or in a hairstyle called San Antonio, folded up around the back of her head. In my eyes