Resettlement re-cap: a periodic report from the Cuban Refugee Center, October 1967

              SPONSOR CUBAN REFUGEES
Fulfill Their Faith in Freedom
OCTOBER   1967
RESETTLEMENT RE-CAP
FOR   ADMINISTRATIVE   USE
A PERIODIC REPORT FROM CUBAN REFUGEE CENTER — FREEDOM TOWER, MIAMI, FLORIDA 33101
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
SOCIAL AND REHABILITATION SERVICE
U.S. CUBAN REFUGEE PROGRAM JOHN FREDERICK THOMAS, Director, Washington, D. C.
ERROL T. BALLANFONTE, Director of Center HARRY  B.   LYFORD,  Editor
YOUNGEST CUBAN FAMILY CHILD AND HER
TWIN BROTHERS WELCOMED
Rev. Morton Park, Portland, Ore., has met many a large-
sized Cuban refugee family in his resettlement activities for the U.S. Catholic Conference. In this picture
he is shown meeting Cubans with the youngest child ever
welcomed to Portland's Cuban refugee community -- 21-
day- old Angela, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andres de Vegas. Mr. de Vegas is introducing to Father Park Angela's two 14-month-old brothers, Alberto and Andres, Jr.
Mother, father and the two boys came from Cuba via Mexico, where Angela was born. Mr. de Vegas, mechanic
for a gas company that ran out of gas, spent his last
five years in Cuba driving a taxicab. Catholic Charities in Portland made arrangements for a job for Mr.
de Vegas and a home for the family. -- Photo Courtesy
OREGON JOURNAL, Portland.
CONVERSION OF CUBANS TO TEACHING POSITIONS DESCRIBED
With the cooperation of nine institutions of higher learning and funds of the Cuban Refugee Program, between 500 and
1,000 Cuban refugee men and women have been qualified to take
teaching positions in elementary and secondary schools and
colleges in the United States.
"These valuable projects, numbering more than 20, could
not have been carried out successfully without the cooperation of the Voluntary Resettlement Agencies," said Program
Director John F. Thomas in Washington.  "These Agencies assisted most effectively in counseling and in arranging for
housing of the trainees in the areas of the colleges and
universities involved."
The special course projects were administered through the
U.S. Office of Education.  Director Thomas made special reference to an August news story issued by Fairleigh Dickinson
University, New Jersey, in connection with a summer course
carried out there this year.  The University stated:
"Twenty-five Cubans from Miami are in this summer's program.  Their average age is 35.  Of the 17 men, 15 were lawyers, one a teacher and one a supreme court judge.  Of the
eight women seven were Doctors of Pedagogy, (the highest education degree offered in Cuba) four were teachers, two were
elementary school principals, one was an assistant director
of a Teachers College, and one was a lawyer. When they came
(See Page 2 For Conclusion)
CUBANS HELP CUBANS IN !W0RK TO CAPACITY1 PROJECT
Cubans helping Cubans in the Washington, D.C, area have
come up with an educational project that may well inspire
refugees to similar action in other resettlement areas of
the U.S. With the cooperation of community schools and
school-minded neighbors, Cuban leaders are encouraging fellow
refugees to enroll for evening training in classes designed
to fit them for employment that will help develop maximum
capabilities.
"We want to help ourselves get into work for which we were
trained in our homeland," said one of the backers of the project.  "Most of us are doing well, but we are not doing all
that we can do.  Better jobs will help us improve our lives
-- and in so doing we can pay more taxes to the country that
has helped us to freedom."
So, in Washington and in nearby Maryland and Virginia
areas, Committees For The Spanish-Speaking Community are
circulating job-training application forms.  Awaiting those
who sign up will be courses intended to help them "work to
capacity." The Cuban leaders list two objectives:  Self-
improvement, and the lowering of barriers to better jobs.
ORGANIZATION'S SYMBOL OF SOLIDARITY
WILL BE SEEN ON ANNIVERSARY OF AIRLIFT
CUBAN-AMERICAN   SOLIDARITY
Observance of the second anniversary of the
U.S. airlift from Cuba is planned for Friday,
December 1.  On that date in 1965 began the family reunion phase of the Cuban Refugee Program,
which has continued with a schedule of two plane
flights daily, five days a week.  That schedule
will, by the second anniversary date, bring to
nearly 90,000 the number of men, women and children coming by the airlift.  Seventy per cent of
those arriving go on to join their already resettled relatives in all parts of the U.S.
In Miami appropriate ceremonies for the anniversary occasion are planned by an organization known as Cuban-American Solidarity, members
of which, in their Declaration of Principles,
point out that the free people of Cuba and the
U.S. "have lived together as neighbors, sharing
the same historic objective, and fighting for
freedom."
The organization's symbol is illustrated
above.
!H0W TO TAKE HELPFUL ACTION, AND WHERE1,
PAGE 3, SHOULD INTEREST YOUR FRIENDS