Cuban restaurant near Mar-a-Lago has a Patria y Vida sign. It is a “moral duty”, says the owner

In Palm Beach, in southeastern Florida, near Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former President Donald Trump, there is a Cuban restaurant that has a sign that says “Patria y vida”, the song served as a kind of protest anthem to the demonstrators July 11, 2021 in Cuba.

Jorge Alfonso, owner of the restaurant, came to the United States from Cuba in the Mariel boatlift in 1980, when he was a child. Mariel was the largest mass migration since the island began to be governed by Fidel Castro in 1959. It is estimated that at least 125,000 Cubans went into exile in that exodus, the vast majority to the coast of Florida.

Capri Bakery & Restaurant is on Southern Blvd, the wide street near Mar-a-Lago. As in an endless carousel, a ballad in English from the 90s sounds, a pop song in Spanish and a Puerto Rican salsa. Alfonso serves a Cuban sandwich, black beans, sweets, croquettes and different types of cakes, typical of Cuban food. The restaurant also offers live music and karaoke.

Palm Beach fell under the media spotlight when Donald Trump came to the White House in 2016. Life hasn’t changed much, though, said Alfonso, who has lived there for nearly four decades and has met famous stars, artists and athletes who live in the area. Many people demonstrate in support of the former president on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.

When the protests in Cuba occurred on July 11, the largest in 60 years of socialist rule and which were violently repressed by the police, Cuban exiles from around the world demonstrated in support of their compatriots.

Alfonsó put up the “Patria y Vida” sign, went to Washington to protest in solidarity and asked for help for Cubans in the program of the well-known influencers from Miami Alexander Otaola.

“Being of Cuban descent, born in Cuba, I have a moral duty to convey our pain to all those who want to know. I think that hiding behind pain does not help in our exile,” Alfonso told the Voice of America while showing photos of when he and a group of Cubans protested in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington.

What he feels for Cuba was taught to him by his parents, now deceased, who founded the family business 37 years ago, Alfonso said.

Human rights organizations estimated that 1,812 arrests occurred in the demonstrations on July 11, 2021. Prisoners Defender, an organization based in Madrid, Spain, ensures that on the island there are 1,066 people imprisoned for political reasons.

The Cuban government describes the opponents as “counterrevolutionaries”.

“I believe that our longing for a free Cuba, for a social, political, and economic transformation in Cuba, makes the slightest movement in favor of that hope inject that force into us,” said Alfonso, adding that like many Cubans, he yearns for power. see the land that saw him born, free.

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