September 11, 2006
George L. Merino - American from Matanzas
In 1968, a seven year old boy boarded an airplane with his family and left a country he would never see again but would always hold in his heart. Communism had uprooted this young boy and his family from their small seaside town of Matanzas, Cuba and brought them to the vastly different world of New York City. Amid the trepidation and sadness of leaving everything he and his family knew behind, this young boy would soon be bewildered and awed by the sights and sounds of this new city of his. The Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockerfeller Center.
Perhaps, even, as their flight approached this new city of theirs, in an effort to console this young boy who'd just left his home, his friends and everything he'd ever known inhis short life behind, his father or mother had pointed out the airplane window and said "Look. There is the symbol of your new country, la Estatua de la Libertad. The Statue of Liberty." It was, after all, liberty this young boy and his family sought.
And this young boy and his family settled into their new home and took the first difficult steps of the American Dream. They all struggled with a new language. They struggled to adapt to this new culture. Perhaps this boy didnt get to spend so much time with his parents in this new country. His mother and father, perhaps, working two or three jobs each to make ends meet, to build a foundation for this new life in this new country that they now called home.
And through hard work and determination they lived the American Dream. This young boy from Matanzas, Cuba, George L. Merino, went to school just like every American boy. He played sports just like every American boy. He recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang The Star Spangled banner just like every American boy.
The boy from Matanzas might have dreamt of becoming an astronaut. He might have dreamt of saving lives one day as a fireman or a policeman. Maybe he envisioned himself smashing homers at Yankee Stadium or winning trophies as a race car driver. He might have even dreamt, perhaps as all young boys do and despite its impossibility, of someday becoming the president of the United States. The leader of this new home that had given him the freedom and right to such dreams.
He might have even dreamt one day as he walked by a big construction site in Manhattan of erecting great skyscrapers. Of building huge, beautiful buildings like the one that had begun being built just two years prior to his arrival in this new home of dreams. Perhaps he dreamt that even if he didnt build it, one day he would work in one of the Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world and a symbol of this great new home that had taken him and his family in and asked for nothing in return.
George L. Merino, the boy from Matanzas, Cuba lived the American Dream. Yet like every Cuban who ever exiled, never forgot his country of birth. He never forgot his cultural heritage. He never gave up on Cuba, a place he perhaps remembered only vaguely, hazed by the passage of time.
This American Dream led George to meet Olga, also a Cuban exile from La Habana, and the little boy from Matanzas, Cuba, now an American man, fell in love and married that Cubanita of his dreams. They began a family and were blessed with their own americanita, Tania, who instantly became the light of her father's eye.
George L. Merino's American Dream came true. He began working at Fiduciary Trust as a securities analyst located in one of the very same buildings, 2 World Trade Center, that he perhaps had seen erected and dreamt of working in when he was that bewildered boy from Matanzas.
But George's American Dream was cut short on September 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center Buildings were brutally attacked by dreamless men intent on destroying the American Dream. The little boy from Matanzas who fled the tryanny of communism to live in freedom died in an act of tyranny against his freedom.
George, like so many Cuban exiles twice his age, never got to live that dream of a free Cuba. He never got to see Olga, the cubanita of his dreams, again. George never got to see his daughter Tania become his Quinceañera. George never got to see her graduate from high school or worry about her on her first date. He never got to see his daughter receive her college diploma or buy her her first car. George never got to live to walk his daughter down the aisle.
George L. Merino, the American man once a boy from Matanzas who lived the American Dream will never have the chance to sit his grandchildren on his lap and tell them about that bewildered and awed boy from Matanzas, who lived the American Dream and dreamt of Cuba.
George L. Merino
Bayside, New York
December 18, 1961 - September 11, 2001
*This post is in memory of George L. Merino for the 2,996 project.
Posted by Val Prieto at September 11, 2006 06:47 PM
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Comments
That could have been any of us, our son, our brother, our father...
Today is a day for remembering...let's NEVER forget-
Posted by: nurian ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 11, 2006 08:32 AM
Here's a link that brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it-
Posted by: nurian at September 11, 2006 08:34 AM
Excellent tribute Val. I've read a few of the 2,996 project tributes so far and have been extremely moved.
The name I was assigned is Alfred Vukosa. Learning about his life was a humbling experience.
I hope that remembering the events of 5 years ago will bring some much needed moral clarity to our society.
Posted by: Paula at September 11, 2006 10:04 AM
His name was just mentioned in the WTC at 10:58 am. He will not be forgotten
Posted by: cubitaTeVe at September 11, 2006 10:58 AM
A very simple, yet very moving tribute. It is good to put a face on the names of those murdered that day - we have seen the faces of the murderers too many times. Never forget - never again!
Posted by: Alberto-Q at September 11, 2006 12:39 PM
Beautifully done Val... Like all the stories, George's has joyful memories and the acute pain of loss. It's heartbreaking to re-live it, but all of these people deserve our thoughts and prayers... they will always be remembered.
Posted by: oceanguy at September 11, 2006 03:15 PM
Another fellow Cuban or Cuban American who died in one of the Twin Towers is Carlos Dominguez.
I stumbled across his name looking for other Dominguez names.
Posted by: jose dominguez at September 11, 2006 10:19 PM
Here's a link to the five known Cuban-Americans killed in the attacks:
http://www.killcastro.com/Cuban_Victims.htm
Que en paz descansen.
Posted by: RobUno78 at September 11, 2006 11:36 PM
George's middle initial is "L." and not "C." We corrected this with some agencies, but apparently the mistake persists.
Posted by: criobo at June 27, 2007 07:15 PM
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