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Good morning, welcome to Today. From back to school to tackling your to-do list, the Today Show is your best start to the day. It's a new season and every morning. We're here to help you take it all off. as the forecast calls for football all across the country.
Blockbuster stars, live concerts, and so much more. Wake up to where it's all happening. We're getting back to all of it, and the best way to start is together. Watch The Today Show, weekday mornings at 7 a.m. on NBC.
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This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star. and the American people. Up next, a story from our True Diversity series. Sponsored by the great folks at the Philanthropy Roundtable, the leading association for charitable giving. in America.
Your True Diversity campaign is a clarion call for valuing all of us as the unique individuals that we are. Today we meet Mike Gonzalez, a member of their campaign and his senior fellow at the time. the Heritage Foundation. He was born in Cuba. Here's his family's story.
I have a a photo of my great-grandparents in my study. taken in 1921 and this is my only set of Cuban great-grandparents. And they were really the Cuban establishment. They went back. to the first Spanish ships to arrive in Cuba.
in fifteen eleven. My great-grandfather was elected to the first Havana City Council in 1905 after. the war with Spain and and the US uh intervention And none of their descendants are Cuban. None of the all of the descendants are here in the United States. And they're all One fourth Cuban.
One half Cuban, one eighth Cuban, they have disappeared as a Cuban family. This is a very Cuban Establishment family that has given their offspring to the United States, and they're all happy Americans. In a way, that is a success story. That's a very good story. But it also means That that that has been lost.
Cuba, the USB. The the reason why I I talk about this is is That you had uh What can only be described as cultural genocide? A friend of mine. In New York two weeks ago, he described it this way. He said, if you walk along the streets of Havana, and you point to a beautiful building.
You can be assured that the architect who drew the plans. the lawyer who worked on the plans. the family who bought the house. and the doctors of the family have all fled. They're all here in the United States.
It's the same story as my great-grandparents. You know, they're all like camera and dias. They're all one quarter Cuban and one half Cuban, and all of the other people who made Cuba. Left. And so Cuba has become this unrecognizable place.
To me, I mean, I had never been back. I left 50 years ago, and I doubt I'll ever go back. My grandfather was a. A politician, a lawyer, and a journalist. He was an essay writer.
who was very anti-Batista, fought against Batista. For decades, Amatista was a fixture of Cuban politics from the 1930s. to nineteen fifty eight Batista was elected president, freely elected in 1940. And then he had a coup d'etat. In 1952, my grandfather, who died And 1950.
Fifty for was a a man who fought against have had to to flee to the countryside several times. My father would tell me these stories. I never met him. and hide in the countryside so he wouldn't be taken away. Batista sent policeman to my house.
in which uh my grandmother would Open the drawers. And Sean a boxes of soap saying as you can see all I have here is soap. But inside those boxes is soap and there was ammunition. And then you had My father, who's anti-batiste as well. and was thrown into prison.
My father taught law at university. And when Castro declared himself as a communist, Castro had always denied that he was a communist.
Well he was a rebel My my my parents knew Castro. My my mom and dad met in law school. and they met Castro in law school. Castro was a lawyer. And uh when Castro became declared himself a Communist after the revolution had succeeded, My father quit his chair position as a law professor at the university.
And um they sent armed uh and a delegation with weapons to my house. to try to quote unquote convince my dad to go back to university and he was very resolute. He said, Well, in a country with his communism, there's no law for me to teach here.
So that was it. uh was penalized, but he was not able to get the a proper diet. He was diabetic. The day he died the equipment that might have saved his life, was being used on a Soviet officer. By the hospital, the at the hospital only have one machine.
You know, I was young then. I was 11 years old. We had a farm. that the government took away. And it was used as it was a very nice place.
My aunts were married there. And it was used as a as a place to to entertain Soviet generals for a time. after they took it away from us. But I think the the the The loss that I think I'd like to emphasize is not just the material possessions, it's the cultural genocide aspect of things. Communism.
must always destroy what comes before it. In the case of Pol Pot in Cambodia, he actually declared the year when he entered Nom Penh. as year one. The Bolsheviks hated everything that was Russian and destroyed it. The Cultural Revolution hated everything that was Chinese.
And sought out to destroy it. When I lived in Hong Kong, for example, we used to go. and shop in Hollywood Road, Hollywood Road. Whereas this is the street in Hong Kong where all the antiques are sold. and you would come across a lot of furniture.
where people had been painting on furniture in in dressers or Uh and and the faces and many of these pieces of furniture have been erased. And the reason for that is that the Red Guard entered people's homes. and erased the faces of of people even on furniture. That's to what degree communism must exterminate. whatever culture precedes it, So so so what happened in Cuba.
is what happened in many other countries that have had this great tragedy of communism. That's what can happen here. And what a story you're hearing from Mike Gonzalez. Communism must always destroy what comes before it. he said.
Also, his grandfather quit the law. Because under communism There is no law. When we come back, more from Mike Gonzalez, a part of our True Diversity series brought to us. by the Philanthropy Roundtable, Ear. on our American stories.
Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love. stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told. We can't do it without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love our stories in America like we do, please go to ouramericanstories.com and click the donate button.
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Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Good morning, welcome to Today. From back to school to tackling your to-do list, the Today Show is your best start to the day. It's a new season, and every morning, we're here to help you take it all off. As the forecast calls for football all across the country.
Blockbuster stars, live concerts, and so much more. Wake up to where it's all happening. We're getting back to all of it, and the best way to start is together. Watch the Today Show, weekday mornings at 7 a.m. on NBC.
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customers through Payward Interactive Inc. Terms and Conditions Apply. To Aina, we all know that water is life. An average American household consumes over 300 gallons daily. 40% of Navajo families residing on a reservation the size of West Virginia struggle to survive on less than 10 gallons of water per day.
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as part of our True Diversity series. As a kid, Mike was fortunate to escape communist Cuba. First to Spain. and later to America. He now brings us back to his day of escape.
It happened over 50 years ago. But I don't think we'll ever forget if we're woken up early. dressed, put a tie on and a jacket. Even though I was 12. one got dressed to go on airplanes though that th they in those days.
even though it was my first airplane flight. I wore a jacket and a tie. We said goodbye to the grandmother who had raced me. Uh who never to see her again. The woman who gave me I have uh a glass of milk every night who woke me up every day.
who who to who practice like uh verbal conjugations with me. Uh I'll say goodbye to her, never to see her again. Then we drove over to see my mother's parents. who were in tears. in absolute tears.
as they said goodbye to her. Uh Even though she was going to to Spain. uh their their land of origin. And I couldn't understand. while my ma my mother and her parents were crying.
To me, it was the happiest day of my life. Uh And it was the happiest day of my life.
Well, borrowing my My wedding. and the birth of my three children, of course. But it was a very happy day of my life.
So I couldn't really understand why they were so... It was such consternation. And then we got to the airport and uh And we were all there held up in a room. And my mother. whispered in my ear.
When we start walking towards the plane, If the authorities call me back, And you and your sister Lucy run to the plane. and you get on the plane. The plane is an Iberian airplane. It belongs to the Kingdom of Spain. and you ask for asylum.
Tongue. Turn back, don't look at me. Just run as fast as you can and get on that plane. I don't like to discuss these things. They're hard.
the hard memories uh Uh Yeah. I don't enjoy talking about it in the least. I I arrived in Spain at the age of twelve. A few months after the death of my father, And uh I really realized then what shelves were for. And in stores I saw shells with actual merchandise.
I had never ever seen that. No I lie, I had seen it once before in Cuba. in a photo. My father showed me. And I was shocked.
To see chaos of food. in sacks of flour. than the shelves of the store because I hadn't I never sold it in Cuba. Never ever. when meat would arrive at the at the butcher's Every every person, every adult left the house.
to go line up to get whatever and if you If you were the last one to line up. then you could only get ground beef and have to eat picadillo. because everything else was gone. Um It depends where you were in line. There were lines.
Everywhere, the only thing communists produce They never produce bread. They only produce bread lines. And I remember my um My mother, when we arrived in Spain, And we're working on. By the way, let's not forget that Spain at this time in 1972. is itself a poor country.
and yet it was like pure heaven compared to Cuba. And I remember pointing to this very strange fruit, and asking the store owner what it was, and my mother breaks into tears. And she asks, The store owner can can I hold it. And he lets me hold it. And my mother was crying because it was a pineapple.
and it had been produced in Cuba, obviously, 'cause Cuba is a tropical island. Before And I had never in my life seen a pineapple, nor did I have any idea of what one looked like. At the age of twelve, So that gives you some idea of the kind of of of poverty that communism produces But it's it's it's again The real Impoverishment That communism causes is an impoverished is a spiritual spiritual impoverishment. and a cultural impoverishment.
Now that is the the the the one that really uh is the worst. Um you know, the the the the idea that there they can not be any god That they cannot be God because because that takes away then it plays where Castro or the Communist Party should be in your heart. One thing that God gives you is hope. God gives you hope. And communists don't want you to have hope.
Marxists don't want you to have hope. Because it's only when you're hopeless that you will launch the revolution they desire. They want you to feel completely bereft of any feeling that your situation will improve.
So they will um They really do go after God for that reason. That again runs against human nature. One thing we do know about human nature is that we all have religion. you can arrive at an unknown island today. and the only thing you will know for sure is that they have music and religion.
So I think the empty shells in the cultural marketplace. are are much more searing to the human condition. to man. than the empty shelves of the bodega. Look, I came to America in 1974.
And I landed in Queens, New York. And everybody Queens, New York, the the neighborhood where I lived, was really a a M A You had a multitude of people, mostly of European ancestry, but people didn't think of themselves that way. They were either Irish. An Italian Polish or Cuban or Puerto Rican. And by the way, there was a there there was a a name, usually a bad name, a cert everybody was something.
There was a bad term associated with all these groups. Everybody. Everybody was something. We haven't vastly improved on that. That is no longer really the case, and I think that's a vast improvement.
from the America that I arrived in. and that we don't put up with racial epithets. We don't think they're funny. We don't think that part of polite society And I think that that is a That has been a very very good a thing that has happened in this country. But now what we have Over the last 20 years at least 10 years.
It's it's so we Well, we did. In the last quarter, of the 20th century was try to deracialize society. try to deracialize ourselves and I think we succeeded with that. But now we're re-racializing. we're going back to thinking that a person is his race.
But there's a word for this, it's called essentialism. Essentialism means that That we are our race. You represent whatever national origin you are. Or I my I I come from very different ancestors. I come from ancestors who were Cuban, I come from ancestors who were Spanish.
I come from wealthy people. That comes from poor people. I come from the Lord of the Manor, I come from the serfs. I think that's a good idea. YM not only because of that DNA, but also because of the things that I have done.
the outcomes of the decisions that I have made. since I became an adult and even as a teenager. If you make better decisions overall than bad decisions, you're gonna have a good shot. Uh in live. But has nothing to do with DNA, has nothing to do with race, any scheme.
whether it's charitable for government. or educational that is based on race. that is based on the idea that people are ambassadors. and spokesman for their rays. is going to fail and fail miserably because it is not true.
We have to save America from this. We only look at the lessons of what happened in Cuba, what happened in China, what happened in Cambodia. in order that we can save what we have here. the land of the free. And you've been listening to Mike Gonzalez share with you his story.
And my goodness, what a story he told here. A special thanks to the folks at the Philanthropy Roundtable. This is a part of our True Diversity series. Communists don't produce bread. They produce bread lines.
And he went on to emphasize, Mike, that it's not just material poverty. But worse is the spiritual poverty that communism demands. There can't be God. Because Castro has to be in your heart, he said. God gives you hope.
Communist. don't want you to feel hope. Mike Gonzalez's story. The story is so many refugees from Cuba Eastern Bloc countries. in countries around the world.
Here. on Our American Stories. This Labor Day, say goodbye to spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with washable sofas.com, featuring Anibay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly pricing.
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Now, through Labor Day, get up to 60% off-site-wide at washablesofas.com. Every order comes with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping, no restocking fees, every penny back. Shop now.
At washable sofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. If you eat too many ultra-processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes, and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try This from the Washington Post.
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Water is life. But do you know that almost half of the homes on the Navajo Reservation do not have clean running water? With your support, St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School is ready to give water to Navajo families.
So we invite you to help provide this precious gift of life to those in need. Contrary to many average Americans, Navajo families survive on just 10 gallons of water per day. You can help support St. Bonaventure's water delivery program by going to stbonaventuremission.org. This is an iHeart Podcast.
