Man Alive

From Castro to Coke (1969x1)

Air date: Jan 08, 1969

It is ten years since Cuba became Castro's Cuba and this week, as the government-inspired ceremonies celebrate the tenth anniversary of the ' Glorious Revolution,' refugee planes from Havana will land in Miami twice a day-as they do every day. Miami-American playground: a frightening combination of golden sand and blaring architecture-and, for a quarter of a million Cubans to date, gateway to a new life. The United States is a country founded on a concept of taking in those who have fled from other places. The latest ingredient to be added to this multi-racial melting-pot is the confused, penniless, Spanish-speaking Cuban refugees. Within a year or two the young, adapting as they always do, reach for all-American clothes, ideas, and behaviour. But for their parents the adaptation sometimes seems impossible. The American government struggles to cope with the problem. Some American people have found a new focus fer race hatred, and still-twice a day -a refugee plane lands in Miami with families who have been stripped of everything but the clothes they wear before they were allowed to leave Cuba - for the land of coke.