2023-10-06_Mat.txt

Good.
All right.
Hi, Matt.
Take two.
Can you, would you introduce yourself?
OK.
My name is Mattias.
[redacted last name]
I'm a retired lawyer.
And I'm a teacher of future rights.
I'm a teacher of fiction writer.
Very cool.
I'm just going to ask you a series of questions
about your past, about your history.
And first question.
Well, what are your earliest memories growing up?
And where are you?
How old are you?
And about what year do you think these memories are?
I was, well, I remember some very early memories.
But the one that I remember the most vividly was in 1950.
I was seven years old.
And I remember you very well because 1950 was a cold.
It was considered to be a saint year in the Catholic Church.
There were all kinds of celebrations on Saint Don.
So it was a big to do over 1950.
And they had a fierce in the school of things
with us.
So I remember that you were very well.
I remember things before 1950, but that's actually
the clearest thing in my mind.
Nice.
If you had to sort of narrow down maybe one or two historical
events that you witnessed when you were younger,
what would you say?
What would you include?
Well, the historical events that I remember the most
significant one was in 1952 because that was when
Batista took power in Cuba through the coup d'état.
And it was a big matter of big concern for everybody
because that was an election year.
And he was one of the candidates.
And he was going to lose.
And everybody nobody liked him because he
had been a dictator before.
So he forces way into power.
That's what the beginning of troubles in Cuba.
And you were 12 in 1952?
We're 9.
Oh, you were 9 in 1952?
Yeah, 15, 13, yes, nine years old.
Do you remember where your parents around then?
Oh, yes, of course.
Would you remember what were they concerned to?
Oh, yes, everybody in the family,
and everybody in the Cuban genera was
concerned for two reasons.
First, because the Constitution order
had been overturned again.
It was Cuba had a history of bad progress like that.
And because of the actor that took power
through Pennsylvania, that was hated.
So it was a lot of this content and opposition
even then, 1952.
Now, of course, it grew into ultimate revolution
seven years later.
Now, so you don't live in Cuba now.
You live where approximately?
I live in Alexandria, Virginia, across the river from Washington.
Now, if I was to ask you, what would you say your historic
community is?
Would you say it's in Virginia?
Would you go back to Cuba?
Like your community.
If you're describing to somebody what your community is
or where it is, would you say Cuba?
Would you say the United States?
Well, my community is and has been Virginia
and I for quite a number of years.
When did you, since 1956, you left Cuba?
No, I lived in 1963.
1963.
I lived in Florida first.
And then I went to Ohio for several years to get my PhD.
And then to New York to get a low degree.
And then back to Florida and back to Washington, DC.
So I had lived in like four different locations.
But I have been living in the Washington, DC area
since 1976.
OK.
So you lived in Cuba for approximately 20 years
before you came to the United States?
Yeah, 20 years and three months.
Do you remember your last memories of Cuba?
Maybe you were leaving or maybe it was before you left?
What are some of the last memories you have of Cuba?
Well, I have lived in a long article that
have been published relating to my last time in Cuba.
And I can give you a citation today.
But I remember our exit to Cuba was kind of adventurous.
And to make long story short, they must,
the last memory of Cuba that I have
is going aboard in Pan American Airways,
charter flight, that took to Cuba.
And being greeted by a lady who proceeded to give me a hand
sandwich which I had in a number of years
and offered me a pack of cigarettes, which I didn't smoke at the time.
But it was what they did to everybody.
Did you end up smoking those cigarettes that you gave you?
I actually, why did you give it to everybody?
Yeah, yeah.
How come, why didn't you have a hand sandwich for years?
Why had it been?
Well, because the situation in Cuba
as far as the absence of goods or popular consumed
was terrible.
You have, they had a rational card and you could get,
for example, four eggs a month and things of that sort.
So hand was totally unavailable or existing.
So hand sandwich was an important, impossible.
So basically no need.
Let me tell you something for you.
They have a saying in Cuba that time was called the following
Spanish.
Hamas, Hami, Hamon, Hamas, Lo Hamarid, which means I
never had Ham in Cuba.
I will never have it.
Right.
Right.
It's a talk with Mr.
Yeah.
I was wondering if I could ask that last question again
and you could answer in Spanish if you could.
Can you give us the long version of the answer?
What was your last memories?
Maybe that, that of the trip on the pan and the pan and flight.
But maybe just like a minute or two, but in Spanish.
So you're the most important part of Cuba was very
difficult and adventurous.
And without any more details, what I remember the most is
being in Cuba's leaving a plane from the US,
was printed and that it was received immediately by NASA
Fata that gave me a lot of abon that I had been eating for many
years and I liked that it was a challenge.
It was a challenge, I wasn't a fan, but I only gave it to
the world.
So you remember the Chesterfields?
Now you remember the brand?
Oh, yeah, sir.
So how long were you in Miami before you made your way to?
You said Miami, New York, Virginia?
Was that the first four years that I was in the US in 63 to 67.
I live in Miami, I was getting my bachelor's of a master's degree.
In 67, I left for Ohio for Columbus to go to Ohio State
and finish my education and get my peers deep.
So I left for Ohio in 67.
In 71, I got my peers day and went back to Florida to work
for a year or two.
And then I went to law school in New York.
All right.
So I think we'll keep it short there if that's OK.
Because this was more of a pre-interview before the big
interview that is still coming.
And we will, I'm going to send you a questionnaire for that
when we get there.
I'm going to actually hit, I'm going to stop recording
if I can figure out how to do that.
Maybe I can't.
Matt, I'm going to sign off, but I'm going to call you right back,
on the round the phone just to explain.
On the regular phone.
All right.
Thank you so much, Matt.
Bye.
Bye.
Woo.
Hey.
Do you want to come in here?
Is there a bad character?
That's how true it is.
This one.
Hey, boys, you need to be on the wrong side.
You got this managed?
Yeah.
You got a little Spanish in there, too.
And I understood some of it.
Nice.
Like the Polkania part in the Hummone.
OK.
So it's still recording.
Because I don't know.