Cuban Families Reunited

“Cultural Diversity affects everything you can think of,” says Oscar Franco, Miami Herald Columnist (Spanish Edition) and Toby Center Director of Family Mediation. Ken Zeno, Toby Center Director of Family Communication “Most significantly, it changes between the generations.”

During a Toby Center board meeting this week, Franco and Zeno gave attention to the current Obama White House attitude towards Cuban family reunification. “Here,” says Franco, “we have an opportunity to reconnect former Cuban émigrés and their children with loved ones they have likely not seen in nearly forty years.” “With a wave of Cuban-American visitors, the younger Cubans who have lived all their lives under the Castro regime will become exposed to the wonders and benefits of capitalism vs. socialism.”

“Also,” says Zeno, a mediator and facilitator in children group dynamics, “consider the potential opportunities for the children of Cuban émigrés who have grown up inside the United States.”

Says Franco, “though they may speak the Spanish of their Cuban fathers, they are not Americanized Cubans but instead, truly Cuban Americans. These are the children and now grandchildren of the Cuban expatriates who have been raised in this country. Although most of them speak Spanish, they have been educated in the USA, have grown up with American television, music and videogames. They are not the same as their emigrant parents or grandparents. They probably are far more American than Cuban.”

Added Mark Roseman, founder and Director of the Toby Center, “Easing restrictions on Cuban travel will ultimately, and likely very quickly, bring families, dollars and trade to that country. Yet, there remains potential for conflict with those Cuban island relatives they reunify with.”

Roseman, a family mediator, believes that family reintegration may pose great problems. “Consider that among the many Cubans who fled Cuba for a better life since the early 1960’s are those who were barred completely from loved ones because of the foreign policy prohibiting travel and communication. The personal hardship of this separation from their family in Cuba, may have led some to start a new family in the States. Now, with the ease of travel, these expatriates may likely acquire guilt and shame as they come to terms with having family members…children and spouses…who were left behind during the Fidel Castro regime.”

Franco explained further that, “for whatever reasons, some exiles have not fulfilled their promise to economically help those relatives left behind. With the new American policy, there is little to excuse their choice for not returning to Cuba to provide assistance to loved ones yet remaining there.”

“Understanding cultural diversity,” continues Roseman, “is far deeper a consideration than current media and organizational training has led us to believe. It is not the foods and the holidays which complement our differences. It is that our individual belief systems continue to compound the problems in the courts and service agencies. It is our life’s experiences that define us moreso.”

The Toby Center is now offering trainings and consultations for those family members now returning to Cuba. Center staff are available to help prepare these individuals with skills to avoid personal and political conflict. Introductory seminars are now being planned for May in the greater Miami area. For further information, contact Oscar Franco at 954-822-1495.

Toby Center speakers and trainers are available for interviews. For further information, please contact Mark Roseman at tobycenter@aol.com or 561-634-0583.

The Toby Center provides family mediation, supervised visitation, human resource consultations and agency trainings on employee productivity and stress management, domestic violence, family communication and reunification. The Center provides assistance to parents and children at times of separation and divorce. The Toby Center is a 501 c 3 non profit organization and is an affiliate of the national Children’s Rights Council http://www.crckids.org/ in Washington, DC.

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