Resettlement re-cap: a periodic report from the Cuban Refugee Center, December 1964

              SPONSOR CUBAN REFUGEES
Fulfill Their Faith in Freedom
DECEMBER 1964
RESETTLEMENT RE-CAP
FOR  ADMINISTRATIVE  USE
A  PERIODIC REPORT FROM THE CUBAN REFUGEE CENTER — FREEDOM TOWER, MIAMI 32, FLORIDA
U.   S.   DEPARTMENT  OF   HEALTH,   EDUCATION,   AND WELFARE      —      WELFARE ADMINISTRATION
U.S.   CUBAN    REFUGEE   PROGRAM JOHN   FREDERICK   THOMAS,   Director,   Washington,   D.C.
ERROL  T.   BALLANFONTE,  Field   Representative,  Miami HARRY B.   LYFORD,  Editor
RESETTLEMENT TOTAL PASSES 85,000 MARK, THANKS TO SPIRIT OF GIVING BY SPONSORS EVERYWHERE
Supervised Mechanics in Cuban
Sugar Mill; Glad For Job Again
Benito Lopez, the 85,000th Cuban refugee resettled,
looks forward happily, with Mrs. Lopez, to a new
life, with a factory job, in Illinois.  In Cuba he
was for more than 30 years a sugar mill mechanical
worker.  A native of Cuba, he went to high school
in Maine, and is bilingual.
RISKS
RATHER
LEAP
THAN
FROM SHIP
GO TO CUBA
In this month of the Christmas spirit the Cuban Refugee
Program marks a significant milestone — 85,000 Cuban refugees resettled.'  The accomplishment is cheering — and
challenging. From all states there has been a heartwarming
response. Opportunities to extend further free world hospitality to exiles from Cuban communism will continue in the
new year.  More sponsorships, more jobs will be needed to
help the Cubans living with federal financial assistance in
Miami to regain self-respect and self-support.
Designated as the 85,000th Cuban resettled under the
program was Benito Lopez, aged 59, who with his wife, Ene-
rina, has gone to a job opportunity in DesPlaines, 111.
The resettlement was under the auspices of Church World
Service, assisted by a Lopez daughter, Mrs. Orlando Martinez, and her husband, in DesPlaines.  St. Martin's Episcopal Church, of that community, is a participant in sponsorships of both the daughter and now the parents.  Mr. Lopez,
a native of Cuba, who attended high school in Maine, and
was later employed as a mechanic in a Cuban sugar mill for
more than 30 years, was happy to be offered a factory job
at the point of resettlement.  His earlier life in the U.S.
helped him to become bilingual.
Errol T. Ballanfonte, Program Field Representative in charge of
the Center, said Mr. and Mrs. Lopez are representative of the older
group of refugees whose resettlement
to job opportunities has not been as
rapid as with younger Cubans.  The
Lopez case, he added, illustrates
that one resettlement can lead to another, since in this instance a reestablished daughter's family has been
able to assist her parents to resettlement.  Mr. and Mrs. Lopez came to
the U.S. from Cuba in 1961.
POLIO VICTIM AIDED IN
RESETTLEMENT TO LOS ANGELES
Ana Olga Capestany, pictured above at
the Cuban Refugee Center, is a brave
and lucky 19-year-old Cuban.  Rather
than return to her homeland after a
visit to Canada, she jumped from a
Cuban cargo vessel on which she was
a passenger.  She timed her dangerous
leap into the Atlantic ocean so that
it was within sight of a U.S. Coast
Guard cutter on surveillance patrol
off Palm Beach, Fla.  Within minutes
she was picked up by the cutter crew.
Safe on shore Miss Capestany made a
tearful phone call to her mother in
Cuba, who found it difficult to believe that the daughter's story was
not a joke.  To questioners,  the
young woman insists she preferred
death to a return to Castroland, but
is happy to be allowed asylum in the
U.S.
THE SCORE
(Week Ending December 4)
Persons Registered...    103
Since Jan. 1961  174,944
Persons Resettled     122
Since Jan. 1961   85,089
By Agencies since Jan.1961:
Registered Resettled
NCWC
118,171
50,290
IRC
38,258
18,005
CWS
15,047
14,700
HIAS
3,468
2,094
NOVEMBER SMALL BOAT ARRIVALS
Total: 41 Persons in 4 Boats
Totals since June 1961:
7,525 Persons, 804 Boats
A polio victim in Cuba at the age of 3, Mrs.
Hilda Ceballos, now 35, has since walked
with leg braces and cane.  Now separated
from her husband, she has been taking private instruction in computing machine operation to bring up-to-date her knowledge of
office work, in which she was engaged in
Cuba.  Mrs. Ceballos feels she is prepared
for a job in the Los Angeles area and has
bravely set out for resettlement, with the
promise of assistance from the Cuban Catholic Cuban Center there.  She was accompanied by her 7-year-old daughter, Hilda Margarita, pictured above with her mother.  A
married brother and married sister of Mrs.
Ceballos are also in the Los Angeles area.
She and her daughter came to the U.S. in
1961.