Ever since we came here-rather, when we arrived here the church had apartment, fully furnish, with everything that anyone can ask for. It has no luxury or anything, but I mean, it was exactly what the family needs.

Then one of the members of the family start trying to get a job for me. That was the first step.

Well, I start working at the New York Hilton Hotel when they open in June 1963. I start as a cashier. This my third year with the hotel. I became an assistant cashier supervisor, and at present moment I am in charge of the whole department.

This experience is—I never had any experience before this type of business, but we manage, and we went ahead with the task that they had assigned to me.

We have quite a few Cubans in this place also that have come before, and we are very proud of the community where we are living right now, because everybody help me, very helpful to us, and my childrens, they going to school, they doing pretty well, my wife has a job with a travel agency, she is managing the travel agency at present moment, and we move from what we came first and we have better apartment at the present moment, than—I mean, more comfortable for us.

Chairman KENNEDY. What kind of work did you do in Cuba before coming here?

Mr. CENTO. I was in the airline business. I manage an airline for 14 years in Havana. Besides, my wife and I have a travel agency, travel bureau.

Chairman KENNEDY. I didn't catch the last word there.

Mr. CENTO. Besides the airline

Chairman KENNEDY. A travel bureau?

Mr. CENTO. Yes, we have a travel bureau, and also did some real estate business at the same time.

Chairman KENNEDY. Did you try and work for any airlines when you came to this country?

Mr. CENTO. First thing I did, but unfortunate, they don't take people overage, and I was over age.

He says "Your qualifications are pretty good, but I cannot put you to work."

Chairman KENNEDY. How old are you?

Mr. CENTO. I am 54 now.

Chairman KENNEDY. What was their age factor? Did they tell you?

Mr. CENTO. No, they didn't say any age.

Chairman KENNEDY. Can you tell us what airlines you tried to work for?

Mr. CENTO. I had an application with Pan American World Air Ways, I had an application with Ramsa, which is a cargo line that goes from Venezuela to Miami, and at the time I could not get the job, though my qualifications are exactly what they need, on account they require citizenship.

Chairman KENNEDY. To work for the airlines they require you to be a citizen?

Mr. CENTO. Yes, sir.

Chairman KENNEDY. Those are the only two? Were those the only two airlines you tried?

Mr. CENTO. The only two airlines I made my formal applications. But I also have friends, as I have been in this business for 14, 16 years, I have friends in different airlines, which I have talked to them about, and they express that my age was a barrier for getting job, unless I get an executive job, and you don't get executives very often to resign, you know, to work.

Chairman KENNEDY. Are you happy in the job that you have now? Mr. CENTO. I am, I am, because there is lot of consideration for myself, and my workers, I have workers under my management, and I get along very well with them, and the hotel is very satisfied the way I am developing my job.

Chairman KENNEDY. Is all your family in this country now?

Mr. CENTO. Except one brother still in Cuba, and another one who just came to Spain, is in Madrid since March 1960. Now we are trying to get him down here, because I have his two sons.

Chairman KENNEDY. Áre you having any luck getting him out of Spain?

Mr. CENTO. I beg your pardon?

Chairman KENNEDY. Are you having any difficulty in having him leave Spain to come to the United States?

Mr. CENTO. They are in the first steps. They are just writing us, what the requirements are, and the Presbyterian Bryn Mawr Church is also interested in the matter, so I hope maybe they come in a couple of months or so. I think that is the time that the law is required for

it.

Chairman KENNEDY. Are there any other Cuban refugees that you see now or do you try and help any of the newly arrived Cuban refugees that come to this country?

Mr. CENTO. Not newly arrived, no. I haven't contact with the ones that have been on this airlift and now to Miami.

Chairman KENNEDY. You left Cuba when?

Mr. CENTO. November 11, 1960.

Chairman KENNEDY. I would like to just get back very briefly to Kemel Cereceda and Miss Garcia.

I think you mentioned you came in 1963, is that right, Kemel? Mr. CERECEDA. 1961, September 14, 1961.

Chairman KENNEDY. And you, Maria, you were in 1963; is that right?

Miss GARCIA. To New York in 1962.

Chairman KENNEDY. Do you know from either friends or other people-this is open to anyone of you who would like to commentwhether conditions have gotten more difficult in Cuba since you have come to this country?

Mr. CERECEDA. Õh, yes. Is very difficult, the situation, to come to this country, because what happen to those people who want to come, they afraid have nothing to eat, to wear. Like in this case, I have two brothers in Cuba. They work, make so much money. They afraid, they read the papers, to come over, because they say they don't get no food, they got to go right in the street and nobody to help, and it is very hard for them, because they afraid to die hungry.

Chairman KENNEDY. You think it is more difficult then?

Mr. CERECEDA. It is very difficult.

Chairman KENNEDY. The reasons for leaving, are there more reasons for wanting to leave Cuba today than there might have been say 3, 4 years ago?

Mr. CERECEDA. More reasons, yes.

Chairman KENNEDY. What are these reasons, do you know?

Mr. CERECEDA. What are these reasons? They have no freedom, they can't move, they can't go nowhere, no place, they supposed to be work, slave, they supposed to go to serve the Government, like weekends they got to go to work free for the Government, cut sugarcane, pick up tomatoes, many other things, and like their mothers, they send their mothers one place, their father another place, and the sons they take and put to work for the Government, and they always hungry, and the family is nothing, just everything is-you know, always somebody is in jail, somebody they kill, always is-many wonderful reason they want to come, they want liberty, more important.

The second reason, they want to eat. They have nothing to eat. Medicine, no medicines. For those who have family who come to the United States, it's hard for them, because the other ones, they make more press on them, and it is really difficulty, the life over there.

Each day is fantastic, how difficult it is. It is like a big jail. They dying.

Chairman KENNEDY. Reverend Delgado, would you make a comment?

Reverend DELGADO. Mr. Chairman, members of this committee. first of all, I want to thank you for this invitation that provides me the opportunity of sharing my experiences as a Cuban refugee.

I was Presbyterian minister in Cuba, in the central part of Cuba, and when I realized, in 1961, that I could no longer fulfill my duties as I wanted to, I decided to come to this country.

I first got some help, orientation, from the Church World Service, the Presbyterian Resettlement Committee.

Of course, I did come without any job, but very soon I found a job as a migrant chopper in Warwick Valley in New York State.

After that, summer of 1961, I came to work as a copastor in the Lower East Side, New York, and 7 months after that I was called to be the pastor of the Hunts Point Presbyterian Church in the Bronx, where I am working now.

In our church we have helped some Cuban families, and we have officially sponsored one of them, one family, and they are getting along very well.

Many others of our countrymen, especially pastors of our churches. have been doing the same thing. They have sponsor through their churches, especially Spanish-speaking churches, in the city, several families too.

This year, just a month ago, I went to Montreal, and I had to go to Montreal, Canada, in order to change my status, my parolee status, and I became permanent resident in the United States.

I want to thank you again for this opportunity, and I hope that through the U.S. citizens we can get more help to bring our countrymen to our families. I mean, Cuban families that are just getting in the United States.

Thank you very much.

Chairman KENNEDY. Reverend, how many other ministers have come to the United States as refugees?

Do you have any idea?

Reverend DELGADO. I have an idea of the Presbyterian ministers. There are 17 ministers.

Chairman KENNEDY. Seventeen Presbyterians who have left Cuba? Reverend DELGADO. Seventeen, yes. Many priests of the Roman Catholic Churches, many minister from Episcopal and Methodist Churches and some other churches, I mean, that belong to the National Council of Churches.

I can't have an exact figure, but I think that over 100 ministers have left the country. Of course, several that stayed there have been veryin great difficulties. Some of them are in prison right now.

Chairman KENNEDY. When these other ministers come to the United States do they have much problem in finding a parish, in the Presbyterian Church?

Reverend DELGADO. No. Especially at the beginning. There was a real need of Spanish-speaking ministers in the sections of the country, especially in the big cities, as New York, and it wasn't too difficult. We had good assistance, you know, orientation, from our churches.

Of course, the first months were not too easy, but finally they were really getting along.

Chairman KENNEDY. You went to Montreal to have your status changed, did you?

Reverend DELGADO. That is correct.

Chairman KENNEDY. You left this country and went to Canada?

Reverend DELGADO. That is correct.

Chairman KENNEDY. Then came back here?

Reverend DELGADO. Yes.

Chairman KENNEDY. Why did you do that?

Reverend DELGADO. Well, I thought, as one of our gentlemen here mentioned, they were required to be a citizen to work in airline, and sometimes to be a refugee has some kind of facilities, because people used to help, but most of the Cubans now in the United States, they don't want to be supported by other people, but they want to be supported by themselves, and to have a better establish, where they can show some kind of-something like taking responsibility in the country, to help instead of being helped by others.

I decided to do this because I thought I could do a better contribution. to the country being more legal and maybe permanent status.

Chairman KENNEDY. Do you think that that attitude which you have just stated is respresentative of the attitude of the other Cuban refugees?

Reverend DELGADO. I think so. I definitely think so. I think the majority.

Chairman KENNEDY. Do you all agree with that?

Mr. CENTO. I agree 100 percent.

Mr. CERECEDA. Yes.

Chairman KENNEDY. Kemel, are you a permanent resident, have you been able to adjust your status?

Mr. CERECEDA. I am a refugee.

Chairman KENNEDY. Maria, are you a refugee?

Miss GARCIA. Yes.

Chairman KENNEDY. I want to thank all of you very much for your appearance here. It is very helpful, very interesting, very valuable. I appreciate your coming down.

Reverend CHATER. Thank you.

Chairman KENNEDY. Did you have something else, Kemel?

Mr. CERECEDA. Yes. I have an uncle of my wife. He is in jail. Mother die in Cuba. He was very young when Castro put in jail. He was underground group. His father, when the mother die, let him go to see the mother. When the father come to the United States, sisters, he is completely alone, and I think sometime can do something for-he is dying over there, and he is completely alone, and all the family is here. What can we do?

Chairman KENNEDY. He is a political prisoner?

Mr. CERECEDA. Political prisoner. If I can help, I am glad to do anything. Just let me know.

Chairman KENNEDY. We appreciate it very much. This is a very powerful observation as to why we should be redoubling our efforts as a country concerned about the problems of political prisoners. I think it was very well stated.

(Witnesses excused.)

Chairman KENNEDY. The next witness is Mr. Philip Soskis, who is the executive director of the New York Association for New Ameri

cans.

You have, I believe, with you Mrs. Regina Perez.

Mr. SOSKIS. That is right.

Chairman KENNEDY. I believe that Mrs. Perez, with Mr. Perez, operated a private elementary and high school, the Albert Einstein Institute, before they entered the United States in 1961, and both are currently teaching Spanish at Brooklyn College; is that correct?

Mrs. PEREZ. Yes.

Mr. SOSKIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for this invitation to appear before your committee.

I am Philip Soskis, executive director of the New York Association for New Americans. This organization is fully supported by the United Jewish Appeal and is a part of the UJA's total effort to provide rescue, relief, and rehabilitation to Jewish individuals who flee from oppression and find a haven in free lands.

The New York Association for New Americans serves Jewish immigrants and refugees who settle in Metropolitan New York and helps them make a prompt and satisfactory adjustment in their new community. Within this objective it provides financial assistance so that the family may have the money to purchase the basic necessities of life: rent an apartment, furnish it, and supply itself with other essentials which any newcomer family needs to get started. It also provides a wide array of vocational services including counseling, job placement. retraining programs, scholarship grants for educational purposes, and intensive English instruction. Where necessary, other special services are also provided.

The organization has been operating as an independent entity since July 1949, though it has a long history of predecessor agencies going back to the early beginnings of the Hitler period. Since 1949 it has