Exchanging a PhD for freedom

Exchanging a PhD for freedom
Cuban immigrant embraces custodial job
Updated: Monday, 18 Jan 2010, 1:53 PM MST

AUSTIN (KXAN) - At the age of 65, Rafael Garcia roams the halls of
Westlake High School, broom in hand.

That's a far cry from the life he envisioned growing up in Cuba.

"I had a very easy life," Garcia said. "I studied; I always went to
school. I spent my vacations at a beach that I loved very much."

His wife, Victoria Garcia, tells a similar childhood tale.

"My life was very easy," she said, "very normal. I played with my friends.

When Fidel Castro brought a communist revolution to town, however,
things changed.

"The ideas of my household, of my father and mother were transferred to
me," Rafael Garcia said. "But at that time, I had a lot of active
participation in the church. I went to church; I participated in
activities and I went to mass and was involved in the church."

That behavior earned a young Garcia a trip to rural work camp.

"We cut cane," he said. "We cleaned the agricultural areas and all the
the camp work, all the work that an agricultural laborer does, very hard
work, you work morning to night."

The experience, which went on for two-and-a-half years, failed to make a
dent in Garcia's church-going ways.

"I finished there finally the same as I started and even more so."

His persistence resulted in an "undesirable" label and cost him a slot
in a civil engineering degree plan at a university. An economics
program, dormant for two years, was just being revived however, and the
university was looking for students. Garcia was accepted and went on to
earn a Ph.D. in economics. He went to work for a government agency as an
analyst, but he never got over his unhappiness with the turn his native
land had taken.

When an agreement was reached between Cuba and the United States,
allowing those who had been sent to work camps to leave the island
nation for America, Garcia jumped at the chance.

At 7:00 AM, April 2, 1996, he gathered his wife and his 88-year-old
mother and boarded a plane. The trip included stops in Cancun, Miami and
Dallas before the Cubans landed at the airport in Austin.

The family knew no one in their new town, but Garcia quickly enrolled in
Austin Community College. He learned English, but in order to work in
his chosen field, he would need a thorough-going command of the
language. The family needed money, though, and Garcia needed a job.

He found one at Goodwill Industries and later he and Victoria both found
work at Westlake High School as custodians. They raised a son who in
December earned his own Ph.D. in entomology. They also raised a happy
life. From a home in South Austin, they relish that life.

"No one made us come; we wanted to come," Rafael Garcia said. "So then
we had to overcome all the situations in front of us. I'm very happy and
I'm very grateful to the government to be here.

"And I'll tell you quite frankly, where there's liberty, that's where
your home is."

Exchanging a PhD for freedom (18 January 2010)
http://www.krqe.com/dpps/news/strange/exchanging-a-phd-for-freedom-_3191266