Cuban workers at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
When Fidel Castro took power in Cuba approximately 2000 Cuban citizens were employed by the United States at its Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.[1] The United States was prepared to offer asylum to the Cuban citizens it employed. Alternately, they would be allowed to continue to commute to work on the base. No new Cubans were hired since the Castro administration came to power. By 1985 the number of Cuban workers who had requested a
Special Category Residents
The Cuban workers who have been granted asylum are called Special Category Residents.[2] They weren't normally granted US citizenship, but some of them had children who became American citizens, like Cesar Aldama.[3] In 1969 approximately 2,000 Special Category Residents lived on the base.[2] In 2005 56 Special Category Residents lived on the base. By February, 2010, the number of Special Category Residents had shrunk to 39.[2]
Commuters
According Captain Christopher Hibbert the Navy employed 3,600 Cuban workers in 1961.[4] In 2005 three elderly Cuban men continued to commute to Guantanamo.[2] Harry Henry, Luis LaRosa and Ricardo Simono. By December 2012 only Henry and LaRosa remained, and on December 14, 2012, the two men retired -- although Henry said he thought he had several more years of work left in him.[5] The USA paid its Cuban workers $12 an hour, very good wages by Cuban standards.
[6] Although the relationship between Cuba's new communist government and the USA were very strained, the then current Cuban workers were allowed to keep commuting to the their jobs. Some of the Cuban workers requested political asylum, and were allowed to live on the base. As of 2012 several dozen former Cuban workers live as retirees on the base. Harry Henry, 82, and Luis La Rosa, 79, the last two remaining Cuban workers who commuted to their jobs, retired on December 14, 2012.
Cuban American Friendship Day
In 1969 the base Commander Rear Admiral J. B. Hildreth instituted an annual celebration -- Cuban American Friendship Day on the last Friday of January.[2][4]
References
- ↑ James Taranto (2006-09-15). "Not Everyone At Guantanamo Is a Terrorist". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB115828789652163998.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglewsj&date=2012-12-15. "One of the antiwar crowd's claims about Guantanamo turns out to be true, if taken literally: Not everyone here is a terrorist. In fact, the base has undergone a population boom in the past five years. "Prior to 9/11, there were 2,300 folks on this base, total," Capt. Leary says. "Right now we're about 7,700." This count includes U.S. servicemen from all four military branches and the Coast Guard; their families; civilian workers, many from Jamaica and the Philippines; and 56 "special category residents" -- Cubans who lived on the base and decided to stay when the communist regime closed the gates. It doesn't include the detainees."
- ↑ Glenn Garvin (2010-07). "Growing up at Guantanamo Bay". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmiamiherald.typepad.com%2Fchanging_channels%2F2010%2F07%2Fgrowing-up-at-guantanamo-bay.html&date=2012-12-15. "But Aldama is part of a little-known and almost vanished half-world that existed outside the headlines -- the tiny community of internal exiles who stayed behind when Castro pulled the plug on the base's 2,000-strong Cuban work force in the mid-1960s."
- ↑ Ben Fox, Suzette LaBoy (2012-12-14). "Last 2 Cuban 'commuters' retire from US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay: One of the world's most unusual commutes comes to an end" (in English). Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newser.com%2Farticle%2Fda35ms3g0%2Flast-2-cuban-commuters-retire-from-us-navy-base-at-guantanamo-bay.html&date=2012-12-15. Retrieved 2012-11-. "As workers aged and retired, the number of commuters dwindled from the hundreds to about 50 people by 1985, according to a base newsletter, the Guantanamo Bay Gazette. By June 2005, it was down to Henry, La Rosa and two others, all earning about $12 an hour, an eye-popping salary by Cuban standards, according to another base newsletter, The Wire."
- ↑
Stacie Bymington]] (2006-02-03). "Cuban-American friendship spans many years" (in English). Guantanamo Bay Gazette. p. 1, 7. Archived on 2012-12-15. Error: If you specify
|archivedate=, you must also specify|archiveurl=. http://www.cnic.navy.mil/navycni/groups/public/@cnrse/@gtmo/documents/document/cnic_048259.pdf. Retrieved 2012-12-15.
