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Nena and Ernestico de la Fé's
Family Page
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Nena and Ernestico de la Fé
Juana Luisa (Nena) Vadillo Iturrioz was the younger of two children of Juana Catalina (Cuca) Iturrioz Arechabala and Alberto Vadillo Ruiz de Austri. She was born in Cárdenas, Cuba, on August 19, 1927. Nena attended the Madres Escolapias school in Cárdenas and remained very active throughout her life in the school's alumni association, even after leaving for Miami in 1960, and living the rest of her life in exile.
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Ernestico |
Ernesto Genaro (Ernestico) de la Fe Flores was born in Cárdenas on July 10, 1916, the 3rd son of Juan de la Fé Trujillo and Manuela Flores Rodriguez. His father had died at a very young age and the family of 5 had been taken under the wing of his maternal uncle, Pepe Flores. Both, his deceased father and his uncle Pepe had been boat carpenters, and Ernestico's brothers also eventually followed in that line of work after attending Cárdenas's public schools. His older brother Juanito, went on to become a naval architect via correspondence with a University in New York , and to the day of this writing, remains as Cuba's only naval architect.
Instead of following in his family's footsteps, however, Ernestico studied commercial sciences at the "Escuela de Comercio" in Cárdenas and obtained his certifications from that fine institution. He played basketball at the "Club Deportivo De Cárdenas" and even coached basketball at "La Progresiva" Presbyterian school. He also rowed competitively on the "Club Nautico de Varadero" rowing teams.
Ernestico was 11 years Nena's senior when they met at a church fair in 1950, shortly after her father's death. For Nena, it was love at first sight of the handsome and athletic Ernestico. He, however, was cautious and reserved. He was also aware that he was being watched closely by Nena's suspicious and overprotective uncles, the Iturriozes, fearing that Ernestico might be on a "gold-digging" expedition. He never let it bother him. (And boy, were they ever proven wrong, because, as fate would have it, years later the only gold to be had was the joy of watching their children grow and become good citizens of a vast and generous foreign country!)
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Nena |
After his marriage to Nena, on September 21, 1951, Ernestico worked as a bookkeeper at the "Dos Rosas" sugar Mill in Cárdenas and also founded "Fe Block" a concrete block manufacturing company that was beginning to take flight at the time that Castro took over Cuba in 1959. Ernestico was proud to be producing concrete blocks that became known as some of the finest in Cuba, and looked forward to starting to produce concrete railroad ties that would be used to repair and replace Cuba's then-aging railroad lines. He had gotten the idea to start producing the railroad ties after seeing them in a German trade magazine.
The happy couple had 5 children in Cárdenas, and were enjoying bringing them up surrounded by family, familiarity and comfort, somewhat distant from the political turmoil brought on by Fulgencio Batista less than 5 months after their wedding day. Batista's re-emergence on the Cuban political scene, as a dictator and tyrant that had overthrown a constitutionally elected president, signaled the start of a very dark period for Cuba, a darkness from which that country has not yet emerged. As the resulting political unrest in Havana reached a fever pitch and gave way to open revolution in 1958, terrorist bombings became an everyday experience in Havana. Things became tense throughout Cuba, even in Cárdenas.
Contrary to popular belief, Castro's revolutionary army in the remote far-eastern mountains of the Sierra Maestra was not the only revolutionary group that existed in Cuba at the time. In actuality, it was one of many competing and even adversarial groups vying to topple Batista after his March, 1952, coup. Groups carrying out actions in the cities were unrelated to Castro's mountain guerrillas. Castro's group was the most notorious, however, due to his having orchestrated a bold but failed assault on a Santiago army barracks on July 26th, 1953. He had served time in prison as a result of the attack on the "Moncada" barracks and had thereafter left the country, only to return as a mountain guerilla leader. During that time, journalist Herbert Matthews of the New York Times, traveled to meet Castro in the mountains and through his newspaper stories elevated him to legendary status, propagating a vision of a rosary bead-wearing freedom fighter who simply wanted to restore the Cuban constitutional order that Batista had violated. Almost every Cuban wanted a return to the republic established under the 1940 Cuban Constitution.
Due in part to Mathews's exposure, when Batista suddenly left Cuba on New Years Eve, 1958, Castro rode a days-long wave of adulation, parading all the way from Oriente province to Havana. By the time he arrived in the capital city, he had been transformed into a mythic demi-God. He utilized the popular power and excitement that he had generated in those few days in order to consolidate his position as Cuba's maximum leader and voice, ruthlessly squeezing out anyone and everyone that challenged his solitary stangle-hold on power over the nation.
During the next year and a half, as Ernestico watched the comings and goings of the new government, including holding circus-like "trials" and carrying out summary executions, he worried publicly about the country's direction. At a time before Castro was ready to openly state that he was a Communist, Ernestico began to tell his friends on the streets that he believed Castro was a closet Communist. Shortly thereafter, Ernestico got wind of the fact that he would soon be arrested as an "counter-revolutionary" because of his talk on the streets of Cárdenas. Therefore, on November 5, 1960, Nena and Ernestico set off for Miami, Florida, USA, with their 5 children, at first believing that they could not possibly have to remain there for more than 6 months.
They settled in Hialeah, where Ernestico's brother, Perucho had settled his family about 6 months earlier. Ernestico washed dishes after their original trip money began to run out, while Nena stayed home to watch the kids. The children, of course, were enrolled in a local Catholic school, St. John the Apostle School.
Later Ernestico worked at Bertram Yacht Company, where
he took pride in caulking the windows of luxury yachts, and proudly pointed out
his fine craftsmanship to his son Ernie at
Ernestico and brother
Perucho, with an unidentified friend between them.
numerous boat shows throughout the years. (He
really did do it better than anybody else! I can attest to the fact that
every other boat manufacturer's caulking was crap. The Bertrams' caulking
was smooth, even and beautiful, thanks to dad.) The most money Ernestico ever made in a
year was all of $14,000.
Both brothers worked at Bertram Yacht Company in Miami, photo circa 1967.
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Nena and Ernestico with
their 7 children on Mother's Day, |
When it became obvious that one income was not enough to support a family that had grown to 7, Nena went to work at the clothing factories that sprung up in Hialeah during the 60s and 70s. The textile industry had come to take advantage of the low wages demanded by the then-recent Cuban arrivals. She probably sewed more collars on more garments than anybody in history, all for a mere $7-8,000 a year, earning 2 or 3 cents per collar by "piece work."
Yes, the proverbial planned 6 months turned into years, and the years turned into decades, but on laborers' wages, this consummate Cuban couple reared their 7 children, making sure they received whatever material goods they needed and the Catholic education that Nena and Ernestico so strongly believed-in.
Later, all of those children went on to higher learning, all of them obtained college degrees: one became an administrative assistant, another a lawyer, a teacher, one a CPA, another a computer programmer, still another a hospital administrator and the baby of the family, an engineer with an MBA.
Nena had always loved children, and the proof of that is in her own life. Her 7 enabled her to see 17 grandchildren born before her untimely death on May 6, 2002. Nena died of a sudden heart attack in Jacksonville, Florida, while visiting her eldest daughter, Juani. I will always believe that she was just one more uncounted victim of September 11th. After that date, her stress level had gone up dramatically, as she worried about the welfare of the nation and of her children.
At the time of her death, she had been a widow for five years, having lost Ernestico on November 15, 1997. After his death she had always honored his memory, visiting and laying flowers at his gravesite on a weekly basis.
It is ironic that the man who had originally been seen by Nena's uncles as a potential gold-digger, would have had to work so hard throughout his life - Joyously, honestly, the old-fashioned way. Against all odds, together with his wonderful wife of almost 50 years, he founded his family, supported it, and always kept it on solid ground. He did it with organization, efficiency, restraint and sacrifice - always living within the family's means. Our father's record-keeping is legendary. He even had logs in which he would keep track of every single kilowatt hour of electricity that we consumed on a daily basis and would use them to "urge" us to conserve.
Nena and Ernestico's love always continued strong through years of displacement, exile and financial difficulty - some might even have called it poverty - as they settled into the vast unknown of a foreign country. Over the years, as the children grew up, Nena's and Ernestico's economic condition gradually improved. They were finally able to travel and enjoy some of the comforts of life. Their real wealth, however, was in their children and their grand-children. They loved each other until the end without any of their family ever witnessing any marital difficulty between them. Sure, they argued, but never disrespectfully.
Nena and Ernestico always dug together for the gold that they eventually found - within themselves. And they have left a huge inheritance of it for their children and their children's children. Their son Ernie is the author of this Family Directory.
We love you and miss you mom and dad,
Juani, Ernie, Gloria, Tangie, Elena, Georgina and Albert
Nena's Favorite Picture
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