Ileana Lamberts remembers the two flights that would change her life forever. The first was from her grandparents’ home in Havana, Cuba, to an unknown future in the U.S. The second was from the warm southern city of Miami to a new home in the land of the “white monster.” The white monster was how the Cuban refugees referred to snow.
Six-year-old Ileana was the daughter of Benito Infante, a lawyer who had been a classmate of Fidel Castro. After the 1959 revolution, Benito began to speak out against Castro and went into hiding. Ileana’s mother, Maria, remembers when the militia men came to search the house and how she pushed a tell-tale magazine to the back of the rack so it wouldn’t be found. Ileana remembers her mother’s tears the day her family learned they would get the needed visas to leave Cuba.
One of CRWRC's first ministries was to Cuban Refugees arriving in Miami. Over the course of 10 years, CRWRC and the Good Samaritan Center helped more than 25,000 refugees. In 2011, Calvin College Spanish professor, Marilyn Bierling, spent time interviewing individuals and families who had been helped through this ministry. Here is the second of two stories.
 Cuban refugees arriving in Miami, Florida, in the early 1960s |
Ileana Lamberts remembers the two flights that would change her life forever. The first was from her grandparents’ home in Havana, Cuba, to an unknown future in the U.S. The second was from the warm southern city of Miami to a new home in the land of the “white monster." The white monster was how the Cuban refugees referred to snow.
Six-year-old Ileana was the daughter of Benito Infante, a lawyer who had been a classmate of Fidel Castro. After the 1959 revolution, Benito began to speak out against Castro and went into hiding. Ileana’s mother, Maria, remembers when the militia men came to search the house and how she pushed a tell-tale magazine to the back of the rack so it wouldn’t be found. Ileana remembers her mother’s tears the day her family learned they would get the needed visas to leave Cuba.
Ileana also remembers arriving at the Havana airport with her mother, older brother Jose, and baby sister Ana. (Her father would come six months later.)
They could only bring one suitcase per person. Ileana was carrying her favorite doll. At first she was told she couldn’t bring it along, but the authorities finally relented. Ileana was checked to see if she was carrying anything besides the doll and her suitcase. Maria had to leave her wedding ring behind.
After the short flight to Miami, the family was met by two aunts already living in Miami, and the family went to live with them in rental housing. At times they went hungry. The family heard about the Good Samaritan Center run by CRWRC, where they could receive free food, clothing, and medical attention. Because of information received through the Good Samaritan Center, they began attending the Good Samaritan Christian Reformed Church nearby.
The work of the Christian Reformed Church in Miami was begun by Clarence and Arlene Nyenhuis, who had spent a little over a year in Cuba as the first and only missionaries of the Christian Reformed Church. Forced to leave after the 1959 revolution, they began work in Miami in December 1960, and by 1961 the CRC had set up the first church affiliated medical facility in Miami. By 1962, when the Infante family arrived, there were two centers supported through the newly-formed CRWRC: one was the medical center seeing about 70 patients per day, and the second was a center for clothing and food that fed about 250 families per week.
One of the questions asked at the Good Samaritan Center was if the family wished to resettle to another city. This was a difficult decision for the Cuban families to make, since it meant a decisive move away from Miami, the city closest to and most similar to their beloved Cuba. It meant moving away from a Spanish-speaking environment, with all that it implied and integrating into an English-speaking culture. Families choosing resettlement through the CRC had to think through several choices, including New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa, Denver, and California. Michigan was the furthest north, but refugees were told that their chances for jobs were good in Michigan. The Infante family opted for Michigan.
Maria was nervous about going. Although her husband was now with her, and he had studied English during his studies in Havana, she herself knew little. Neither did the children. But they stepped forward in faith. Ileana remembers the airplane ride from Miami to Grand Rapids. Her mother looked down below at all the trees in Michigan and exclaimed “My goodness! Where are they taking us? To the countryside, with all those trees?” Maria definitely preferred a big city, and she had no desire to be isolated in a forest!
This charter flight to Grand Rapids carrying 22 Cuban families occurred on May 29, 1962. Articles in the Banner and in the Grand Rapids Press record the events of the day. Arlene Nyenhuis also remembers the flight, since she and husband Clarence were also on it. Arlene states, “It was a strange feeling. The people really didn’t know what to expect when they got here. And of course they’re coming to a land of snow, which even if it was summer time, they knew the weather patterns of the North. But they weren’t happy and exuberant; they were sad, because this is taking them away from their corner of the world, which… Miami relates very much to Cuba, you know… So people weren’t really, really joyful on that flight. It was quiet, very quiet…”
The mood changed when the families stepped off the plane. There was a welcoming committee of government and church officials. And there was a band playing the U.S. and Cuban national anthems!
In a Banner article dated November 22, 1993, the former Banner editor Rev. J.D. Eppinga remembers “Benny”, Ileana’s father. Eppinga remembers going to the Grand Rapids airport to greet the Infante family, whom they had chosen to sponsor, when they stepped off the plane on that day in 1962. Benito Infante and Jacob Eppinga did not speak the same language, but they bonded immediately when they discovered that they were both Detroit Tiger fans.
The Banner article of July 6, 1962 (p. 6) states that “Little Jose Infante had a birthday on June 1, so some people of the LaGrave Avenue sponsoring church took the family out to dinner. A highlight of the evening was a big birthday cake for Jose with ten candles on it. A press photographer presented him with a baseball and a bat.” Wonder where that idea came from!
Maria remembers being very excited about their first days in Grand Rapids. There was an apartment, furniture, many gifts, clothes, even a hat for her to wear on Sunday. Benito found work in a bakery washing pots and pans, and later he was hired at Amway. By fall the children were enrolled at Oakdale-Baxter Christian School.
In October 1963 Senator Philip Hart conducted hearings in Grand Rapids on the Cuban refugee crisis. The testimony by U.S. citizens and Cuban refugees alike was that the Cubans were doing well in West Michigan. Senator Hart visited Oakdale-Baxter Christian School, where they snapped several photos of Ileana.
Ileana speaks fondly of the many friends she made at Oakdale School, as well as of the Christian training that she received at LaGrave CRC. During her high school days, the Infante family moved back to Florida for the warmer weather, and she graduated from Westminster Christian High. But the family decided to return to Grand Rapids, because Benito and Maria wanted to continue raising their children and their grandchildren in the West Michigan area. Benito and Maria became members of the Spanish CRC in Grand Rapids (now the Emanuel CRC), and Benito served as elder while Maria participated in many church activities.
Ileana and her family have done well in the United States. Ileana and husband Lee have three children and four grandchildren. Ileana has retired from work at Grand Rapids Public Schools, and she presently works part time for Hope Network. Older brother Jose is a senior vice president at a local bank. Younger sister Ana Tauler does the bookkeeping for the family heating and cooling business.
Ileana says that she is thankful for many things: for the sacrifices her parents made, for the fact that her parents insisted on her continuing to speak Spanish, and for the loving guidance of LaGrave CRC. She says that the church gave them “not only things to survive, but they gave us spiritual things.” She knows also that God is the source of all their blessings, and she continues to worship at Friendship Chapel in Jenison, Michigan, affiliated with the CRC.
– by Marilyn Bierling and Elena Brubaker, Calvin College