Jose and Virginia Finale
Photo: Marzo Artime |
CWS Refugee Stories from Across the Decades:
Virginia Finale, Cuba -- 1961
After Fidel Castro took power in 1959, Virginia and José Louis Finale were ordered to teach Marxism and Leninism at their private school. “We didn’t believe in that, so we closed it,” Virginia said. José also balked at orders to give public talks praising the Cuban Revolution.
When U.S.-backed Cuban exiles invaded the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Cuban government forces arrested all the men in their town who were against Castro to prevent them from helping the exiles. The Cuban government told the men it would kill them if the invading forces won. “Hearing this, we said, ‘We have no hope here,’” Virginia recalled.
A friend in Havana helped the couple obtain tourist visas and one of the last flights from Havana to Jamaica. There, “because I could type and knew some English,” Virginia helped other Cuban refugees with their U.S. immigration applications. After about three weeks, the Finales were flown to Miami. They registered with CWS and were sent to Chicago, where Lakeview United Methodist Church set up an apartment for them and helped them find work.
“My husband had a job in a plastics factory three days after we arrived in Chicago,” Virginia said. “I worked in a large insurance company.” The couple owed $700 to friends who had helped them with travel expenses, “and we paid it back in five months. We didn’t eat steak, but we paid our bills!”
In 1965, the Finales returned to Miami, and Virginia got a one-week assignment with CWS that ended up lasting 35 years. She helped waves of Cuban and Haitian refugees, along with Vietnamese, Ukrainians, Russians, and asylum seekers from Nicaragua until she retired in 2000. José worked in a factory and later managed a bowling center before retiring in 1992.
Reflecting on the past 45 years, Virginia said, “You know what I learned? There are people who care about other people. Here, nobody knew us and yet people were willing to give us a hand. Our three sons all graduated from universities. And there is no place that has more freedom.
“Cuba is my country because I was born over there,” she concluded. “The United States is my country because I chose it.”