User:1raulrodriguez

Raul Rodriguez Espinosa

I was born in Havana, Cuba on November 27th, 1970. My parents, Julieta Maria Espinosa (devoted wife/mother), and Raul Rodriguez Lopez (medical photographer) are still married (45 years as of this account). Due to my father's insistence, we migrated from Cuba during the Mariel Boat Lift of 1980. After brief stays in Wisconsin and Newark, we settled in a small suburb of Boston called Jamaica Plain. It was at 94 Day Street that I would solidify my fondest memories of my childhood.

Culture shock was not typical. There was no time for shocking. This new country had around the clock electricity, heated water, a school named Winship, a yellow school bus, marshmallows, friends of different countries and customs, snow and Christmas. I loved this country since my first foot touched the pier at the Key West Naval Station. My love was solidified upon taking my first bite off a Red Delicious. Everyone close to me was with me and well. Although we had no possessions, the possibility were as clear as the taste of my first Coke.

I now live in Miami, Florida, and have been a resident of the State of Florida since 1985 after moving from Boston, Massachusetts with my mother, father, brother and grandmother. In such time I have been to various schools and worked in many jobs. Beginning with WR Thomas, then Miami Coral Park Senior High, to finally Florida International University where I received my teaching degree.

My work experience began early. Having little to no reliable person or place to watch my young brother and I, our parents took us to all three of their combined part-time jobs in the evening. From an early age we learned how to clean toilets, mop and vacuum endless square feet of floors and even run the buffing machines. Once I was old enough to drive, my jobs consisted of running the errands for my father's 1-hour photo store, waiter and bartender at the airport Marriott in Miami, to working as a recovery room assistant at a hospital that was called Cedars Medical Center in the center of Miami. All while going to school and even married and expecting my daughter: Valentina.