{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://nolan.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/with-the-help-of-a-congressman-castellanos-escapes-cuba", "The Rubicon: With the help of a congressman, Castellanos escapes Cuba and unites with family", "2014-12-19", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "MN", "Rick Nolan", "N000127", "nolan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "While the United States is a nation comprised entirely of immigrants and descendents of immigrants, getting here is often more difficult than it\u2019s portrayed. \u00a0Upper School Spanish teacher Rolando Castellanos\u2019 story is a prime example of this. \u00a0Castellanos came to the United States from Cuba in the summer of 1978, when he was 26. \u00a0He then joined his family, who had immigrated to St. Cloud, Minnesota ten years previously. Castellanos and his family were fleeing political changes in Cuba, where communist dictator Fidel Castro instigated when he took power at midcentury. \u201cLiving in a communist country, you live under all sorts of restrictions that make life a little unpleasant,\u201d Castellanos said, \u201clike the lack of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of movement\u2026They only allow one political party, and if an individual challenges the status quo, it is believed that there is something intrinsically wrong with the individual.\u201d Castellanos\u2019 parents and younger siblings left Cuba in 1968, but Rolando, the oldest, had to stay behind. \u00a0The Cuban government, in hopes of curbing emigration, had instated a law forbidding men of military age, from 15 to 27 years old, from leaving the country. \u00a0Before Castellanos reached the age where he could leave the country again, Cuba and America had entered their long-standing trade embargo, and Cuban immigration to the United States was cut off completely. \u00a0The policy \u201cmade that fear of not being able to reunite a very real one\u2026 the prospects of me leaving Cuba were very slim,\u201d Castellanos said. He stayed with his grandparents for the next several years. \u00a0\u201cI became a high school teacher, and I taught earth science in boarding school on a banana plantation.\u201d Castellanos\u2019 chance came in 1977, when his parents\u2019 representative, congressman Rick Nolan, was sent to Havana by President Carter with a collection of executives. \u00a0The mission was an attempt to improve relations between the United States and Cuba and to negotiate the release of the remaining American prisoners held in Cuba after the infamous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. \u00a0Castellanos\u2019 parents contacted Nolan before he left to ask him to try and bring their son home. \u00a0Nolan agreed. \u00a0He later said that \u201che had two goals in Havana\u2026 get these Americans out of jail and get Rolandito to the U.S. to join his family,\u201d according to Castellanos. \u00a0Castro agreed, and gave the Cuban immigration department a personal order to find Castellanos and tell him he could leave. \u00a0The U.S. had recently opened its first consulate in Havana since 1960, and Castellanos was told to go there. \u00a0\u201cI was given an envelope\u2026to be opened only by immigration officials of the United States.\u201d \u00a0He then took a plane to Kingston, Jamaica, and then another to Miami, Florida. \u00a0Upon handing his envelop to immigration officials, he was taken to a back room to wait while they cleared him. \u00a0His was the first American visa given to a Cuban citizen since the beginning of the embargo. When he finally got to Minneapolis, Castellanos was greeted by his younger sister, who he\u2019d never met. \u00a0She was nine, and his parents had left Cuba before she was born. \u00a0\u201cAfter being apart for ten years, it was a process\u201d readjusting to family life. \u00a0But getting caught up with his family was only one of the difficulties Castellanos faced in his new home. \u00a0\u201cThe language was a big barrier, not only for surviving in the state but for communicating with my siblings,\u201d many of whom spoke primarily English. \u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t know any English back then. \u00a0Zero.\u201d Fortunately, Castellanos was a quick learner, and intensely focused. \u00a0\u201cLearning English became an obsession for me,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cI squeezed my brain to learn your crazy language.\u201d \u00a0On top of these challenges, Castellanos had to adjust to the climate. \u00a0Having spent his entire life in tropical Cuba, he\u2019d never seen snow, much less dealt with subzero temperatures. \u00a0\u201cMy first winter here was very interesting, what with the snow and the temperatures and what have you,\u201d he said. \u00a0But he stayed, and became a Spanish teacher at St. Paul Academy and Summit School eighteen years ago.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://nolan.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/with-the-help-of-a-congressman-castellanos-escapes-cuba"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9851718787103891, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}