User:Jmurich/Stefano Velaska

Stefano Velaska was only eighteen years old when he literally walked away from an Czechoslovakia during the invasion of 1968. Forced to defect to Italy by an by an oppressive communist regime, it took him three tries to successfully escape. Resisting tyranny, he left behind his parents, friends and a tweny seven year prison sentence for treason. Hard labor seems a bit extreme for a teenager just doing what all of his friends are doing; resist and speaking out.

So he came to New York City with Freedom on his mind and three words in his vocabulary. "I wash dishes." Homeless and alone for more than two years, left to wander as a penniless vagabond in an alien country, he eventually picked up a dictionary and hitchhiked to sunny-gay Miami. From there he journeyed to New Orleans, where he met his wife on his first job, at Kolb's restaurant.

Once he had a grasp of the English language, he knew it was time to talk about his experiences so anyone within earshot could learn about the atrocities he and his countrymen endured at the hands of the Warsaw Pact countries that had invaded his beautiful homeland. How could communism provide a better way when he had to stand in line for basic food to drag three miles to feed his family?

Sickened by the lies and angered by the years of estrangement, Stefano took part in over forty radio talk shows, including a three year sting on "Wake Up America." It was while doing an interview for WWL that Stefano met a member of a prominent New Orleans family. He and this man had similar interests, to say the least. Together they became embroiled in Iran-Contra scandal, smuggling supplies and doctors to Honduras in an airplane provided by a wealthy benefactor from Atlanta, GA. In the steamy jungle nights they would covertly cross the borders into Nicaragua.