Alex V. was born in a small town in the providence of Havana, Cuba in 1932. He attended the Institute of Mantanzas and pursued a Bachelor of Science degree and studied electrical engineering. Alex met his wife, Orchid in 1949. The two went on a chaperoned date to the movies, upon which he asked her to be his girlfriend. They both worked for the Cuban Electric Company and dated for five years before marriage. Alex and Orchid have 60 years of marriage and together they have two sons, Alexander and George.
Later on, Fidel Castro fired Alex and his wife from the Cuban Electric Company. As a result, they had to go work in the field. Alex worked cutting sugar cane and his wife went to the coffee crops. He worked hard with the hopes and dreams of one day leaving Cuba and being free. He worked in the field until an engineer befriended him and got him a position in a rubber shop. From there he was sent to a military compound.
Leaving Cuba
After much hard work and dedication, the day to leave Cuba finally arrived. Alex, his wife, two sons, and sister made the trip to the airport. They would catch a plane with 50 other people headed to Miami, Florida. However, when they arrived there were over 400 people
sleeping on the floors. It dawned on the family of five that they would not leave Cuba for two to three weeks. However, their luck changed when another family was unable to leave to do an error with their last name.
When they boarded the plane, Alex recalled a deafening silence, which did not subside until after the plane took off. Pandemonium broke out as everyone celebrated with joyous shouts and hugs
because they were finally free. Once they landed in Miami, Alex recounted kissing the land he now calls home.
Life in the United States
His sister lived in Santa Ana, California, which is where they went after landing in Miami. A week after they arrived, Alex got restless and decided to go out and get a job. He went down to the unemployment office and the woman who interviewed him happened to also be Cuban. She told him to come back at 2 p.m. and she would have a job for him at Kimberly Clark.
A week later he had the job at Kimberly Clark where he started at the bottom. Yet again worked his way up through this company. His
greatest achievement is the work he did with the company’s Safety Committee, which he later became the chairman. He pursued this field passionately as he strongly believed it was the best way to do something for this country in saving lives.
Alex was bold and brought safety concerns to the Vice President of the company, which proved to beneficial in getting initiatives put in place. In fact, their Safety Committee ran a promotion at all locations to go an entire month without any time loss accident, to which every single mill successfully completed. This again caught the Vice President’s attention and he told Alex he’d do anything for him because of the great work he’d done. Alex simply requested that when he retired, the executive would attend his retirement party, which after his 26.5 years of service to the company, he did.
Today, Alex has four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The youngest great-grandchild is his pride and joy, as he’s the first to serve in the U.S. Military on the Coast Guard. Alex loves the people working at Renaissance Village Rancho Belago and is quick to befriend staff and residents alike.
