¡Ay, Jorge!

My mother got off the plane from Cuba in 1959, landing at LaGuardia with her best friend and one small suitcase. That suitcase contained all she was allowed to take with her out of Cuba. Except for a pillbox hat - which happened to be in fashion those days (thanks to then soon-to-be-First Lady Jackie Kennedy). Back then, people got off planes right on to the tarmac, having to walk to the terminal without the shelter of a covered gangway. My mom’s hat flew off as soon as she set foot on the tarmac. She ran off after it, as it blew down toward the open runways. Her best friend from Cuba, Maggie Chapman, grabbed Rita’s arm - yelling “¡Degjalo que se vaya!” which means, loosely, “Let it go!” But my mom, as with many of her memories of her life in Cuba - just like the entirety of the Cuban exile community or diaspora - could not just let it go. She went after that hat like her life depended on it. And in many ways it did. Nobody told her she’d never go back to Cuba. I don’t know whatever happened to that hat, and, I think I even forgot to ask Rita about it during this podcast (listen and find out!), but I do know that I did my best to capture the bittersweet poignancy of her journey — as embodied by The Cuban Cowboys’ song, as well as her (mostly) lifelong friendship with one Maggie Chapman (Note: That's Maggie in the pic, on the left. Young Rita's on the right, and my grandmother, Irene Zon sits between them)

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Jorge's grandfather, Jose "Pepe" Navarro, aka El Dichoso, worked for 9 Cuban presidential administrations. He was all of 16 years in 1921, when a man who'd just been appointed as President Alfredo Zayas' Secretario de la Presidencia hired the teenager as a stenographer (ostensibly ... in actuality and initially, Navarrito was a go-between for politicians, bookies, casinos and loansharks). By 1933, after a near-revolution undid the Machado presidency, Pepe Navarro was appointed by the newly-suspiciously elected Ramón Grau to serve as El Secretario himself. Jorge's grandfather served in that capacity -- essentially a Presidential Cabinet Chief of Staff, for Cuba's next 7 presidents, from Grau all the way up to the early morning hours of January 1, 1959, when Fulgencio Batista fled the island by plane with no shame and suitcases stuffed with cash. 29 years as a key member of pre-Castro Cuba's crazed political cesspool is no mean feat. His longevity took a heady mix of guile, moxie and connections throughout Havana's sprawling, criminal underworld. Listen as Rita shares her memories of the man and his time in- and out of office. Oh, and apologies in advance for Jorge's profanity! 

After receiving no less than 62 emails demanding a revisiting of Season 1's 'Baby-Making' segment, Rita's hard choices return with a vengeance! Your favorite 90 year-old Cuban mom* once again drops considerable knowledge on us via her take on Russia and China through the lens of Fidel's Cuban revolution. It's a Mother Rita Vs. Mother Russia battle royale as Jorge and Rita discuss Cuban history in the context of Russia's latest, ongoing foray into sovereignty-busting. What can we learn from Cuba's dalliance(s) with Russia and China? Who would Rita choose to make a baby with? Chinese President Xi Jinping or Russian strongman Vladimir Putin? What if there was a third way? ... a threesome for peace, so to speak? Listen and learn!

*Unless you have your own, actual Cuban mom:)

Thomas Honan was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1900. He was the son of my Cuban family's patriarch, the 'OG Irishman' Thomas Patrick Honan (my maternal, great grandfather ... the one who'd emigrated from Ireland in the mid-1800's, became a cop in Chicago, and ended up in Cuba after fighting alongside Teddy Roosevelt as a member of the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War). In some ways, Thomas Jr. never escaped his father's long, grand shadow. Sadly, and in regards to my scant, second-hand memories, this has remained true for me for most of my life. While Rita doesn't set me straight, per se, she does shed more light on her father in this episode. He was the the only grandparent of mine that I've never met, so it's about time I learned a bit more about him. 

I remember watching the Liberace show with my grandmother and great grandmother when I was a little kid. I loved his flamboyance while my grandmother always remarked on his piano playing. In a sort of exchange, I would translate for them in real-time (neither understood much English). My grandmother was something of a piano prodigy herself, and would make it a point to have me watch Liberace's hands and feet as he played. Such were my first music lessons; indirect, via the critical ears of a woman who hated the Cuban revolution if for no other reason than she could no longer play the piano whenever she wanted. It would be a few years before my mom was able to afford a piano for my grandmother. All bets were off the moment the used, upright piano was delivered and tuned. Listen to this episode and you'll know why.

Irene Zón was born in Vigo, Spain and became a piano teacher in Cuba's Centro Gallego de la Habana before finding work as a seamstress in the United States. She was a force of nature, Chancleta Master who did not suffer fools (like my dad, her son-in-law) gladly or otherwise. The tension between her and my father was as palpable as her own marital history was as influential; in my childhood home as in her heart as in her impassioned piano playing. This is some of her story.

The ¡Ay, Jorge! podcast returns for another season of Jorge interviews with Rita, his 90 year-old Cuban mom. This season takes a deeper dive into their family's exile and subsequent life in the United States. Rita looks back on Cuban history, key relationships, and the lessons of a life well-lived despite political and personal turmoil. Jorge, as ever, tries his very best to distract her with talk of Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos rocketry, and assorted allusions to last season's profanities. Season 2, Episode 1 is devoted to Jorge's father, José Agustín Navarro, otherwise known as 'El Capitán.' A member of the CIA-backed La Brigada, the Captain's life was never the same after the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion. A former Havana politician, and son of Batista's Chief of Staff, he had lived quite the charmed life before Castro's revolution. Sadly, like many of his generation, the allure of his past could not withstand the harsh reality of life upon realizing that there'd be no returning to the Cuba that once was.