WASHINGTON ( DC News Now ) — Hurricane Rafael, a Category 3 storm, made landfall in Cuba on Wednesday, just after the island began recovering from Hurricane Oscar and a mass blackout .
Frank Calzon, 80, of Arlington, Va., has dedicated his life to advocating for Cuba. Although he has spent most of his life in the United States, he was born in Cuba and moved to the U.S. when he was 16.
“I was a teenager with a big mouth, and back in 1960, I was talking too much at the high school, where suddenly we had a communist teacher for Spanish grammar and vocabulary … when I began to ask questions, she told me to shut up,” said Calzon. “When I kept insisting, a couple of days later, the police came to our house, so my parents got really scared – they shipped me out.”
Tropical Storm Rafael forms in the Caribbean and could hit Cuba as a hurricane
Calzon moved to Miami without his family, where he stayed with a friend for a few months before moving to New York. He worked in various bars and restaurants in the city to earn a living.