- Maureen McCollum: In the summer of 1980,
Ernesto Rodriguez stood on the shores
of the Port of Mariel.
He was about to board a fishing boat
with 80 other people
and leave the only home he'd ever known: Cuba.
- Erne: And then, when they ask me,
"You wanna leave Cuba?"
I go, "Yeah, because I don't wanna be there."
- Maureen: Erne is one of the 125,000 Cubans
who left the island as part of the Mariel boatlift.
Protests and discontent led to a rare moment,
when President Fidel Castro opened the doors to Cuba
and allowed his residents to leave for the United States.
Almost 15,000 of these exiles, like Erne,
ended up in Wisconsin.
Erne shared his life story with me
as part of the Wisconsin Public Radio podcast
WPR Reports: Uprooted.
Once Erne boarded the boat with his fellow exiles,
they were bound for Florida.
- Erne: The ocean, in the beginning, was calm.
But when we was in the middle,
the wind just start. [imitates wind blowing]
And that's when a lot of boats sink, people drowned.
When I got to Key West, as soon as I get out the boat,
I kiss the ground and, "Thank you, God."
- Maureen: Shortly after arriving,
Erne was put on a plane with other Cuban exiles
and sent to Sparta, Wisconsin.
At Fort McCoy, Erne worked in the kitchen
and showed American cooks how to make Cuban food.
- Erne: They said, "What the heck's Cuban food?"
And then, I show him how to make a congri
and chicken fricassee.
One day, he said, "Do you guys like macaroni and cheese?"
"What the hell is macaroni and cheese?"
- Maureen: In this kitchen, Erne became friends with two cooks:
the Brandstetter brothers.
Their parents, Annette and Roger,
would become Erne's sponsors.
- Erne: She was the best, the best mom.
I never had a mom.
I thought of her as my mom.
Every birthday, she's making me a upside-down pineapple cake.
Every birthday.
Sometime I say, "Mom, I don't want this no more!"
And she told me, "Erne, happy birthday!
Come and get your cake!"
I had to love her that family.
Because nobody do that for a Black guy in another country.
- Maureen: For the next few decades,
Erne worked across the upper Midwest.
He also started a family.
Erne is now in his 60s.
He's put roots down in Wisconsin.
He has a tight community of friends,
other Cubans who arrived during the Mariel boatlift.
They play music together,
they help each other through tough times,
and they talk about their dreams of someday visiting Cuba again.
- Erne: I have a lot of family that I never met before,
like a niece and nephews.
Great-niece, great-nephews.
Any time I talk to them, it's, "When you gonna coming?
When you gonna coming?"
- Maureen: Like many Cubans who came to Wisconsin
during the Mariel boatlift,
Erne has been in a legal limbo for decades.
He has not been able to visit Cuba
because he has not been able to become a citizen.
That is, until the summer of 2023.
- Erne: They said, "Yeah, make him citizen."
I'm happy, I'm just excited, you know?
Waiting for 42 years.
It's big, big step, becoming an American citizen.
- Judge: Ernesto. [applause]
- Maureen: As a U.S. citizen,
Erne will be able to cast the first election ballot
in his entire life.
And he's a step closer to seeing his family in Cuba.
- Erne: Well, the first thing I gonna do
is go to my hometown.
See if I recognize where I used to live,
see if the house still there.
And then I go to Havana, party in Havana.
- Maureen: He'll finally return to the shores of Cuba,
the country he left on that fishing boat
more than 40 years ago.
He'll visit with family he hasn't seen in decades,
and maybe even have that party in Havana.
And then, he'll return to his chosen home in Wisconsin.
[gentle music]