Samuel Acosta Biography

	It all started in Cuba when my fathers Sperm met my mothers ovum on c. friday Nov 4th 1955. And 41 weeks later on Friday, Aug 3rd 1956 abt 7am I was born . Everybody woke up at 4 am.
Ricardo Acosta & Odelidia Perez May 1955 in Las pelonas Oriente Cuba.	Cuba -- Mom & Dad [Ricardo Acosta & Odelidia Pérez] had moved temporarilly to her parents house in Las Pelonas, Oriente to deliver the baby, [me]. Las pelonas is a farm in the outside of Victoria de Las Tunas. < < < - - - This is the house - - - > > >	Odelidia in the ranch Samuel was born.
Ricardo Acosta in 1955	Cuba -- Papi left a horse tied in a 'potrero' [grassfield] abt 8 blocks distance from the farm house by the road, traveled from Las pelonas to Las Tunas in a taxi car driven by 'Fingo', brother of the wife of pastor Daniel Machado, to get 'La comadrona' [midwife] . The 'comadrona' was paid by the goverment. Back by car, and then got the midwife on the horse, and still made it on time. [source mom 3/30/02]	Ricardo Acosta at the ranch of 'bisabuelita' Josefa Parra in Grangel May 1955
Cuba -- They got an ironing board from neighbor Kiki ortiz to rest mom on for the delivery. The comadrona asked fo a razor blade and mom got scared, inexperience. "are you gona cut me with that?" mom said, and she answered "no its to shave You". At the time i was born, Laudelina and papi hugged crying of happines. I was registered later in puerto padre ... Mom did clothes for me with a manual sewing machine. [source mom 3/30/02]
Puerto Padre, Cuba
	The 1st house we lived in Puerto Padre was like a store front with a lot ofglass in frond and i remember it real good because papi had there also a church, and for a while i remember seeing him play an acordeon. The 2nd house we live in Puerto Padre, i remember the sidewalk was very high (or maybe i was very small) this was before i starte kinder. There where BIG chabs that would come out of holes by the curb and a house nearby that my mom used to go and sell Avon, had a tall windmill like this one on the left.
Kinder to 3rd grade This is where my recollection starts Puerto Padre, Cuba -- The 3rd house we lived in Puerto Padre made of wood ona hilly street made of dirt and loose rocks was at: Donato Marmol 115, it had termite over the outside walls. Papi did not own many tools but I remember seing him nailing things, papi's favorite tool was a hammer. There was an 'escusao' [outhouse], also made of wood and i remember there when i was about 5 years lifting a girls dress and seeing and touching her pussy, ... shhhh... i was a little kid. Puerto Padre, Cuba -- In Kinder at a private house a block away i would study in the patio under the shade of this healthy grape vine on a wood trellis, nearby was a tall 'Tamarindo' tree, thats why i now have a wood trellis a a grape vine [no grape].		Samuel Acosta
	Puerto Padre, Cuba -- In 1st grade my teacher was a very old lady named 'Yollita' around that time there was an older girl in another grade that i used to like she sang in the auditorium music class and one of the song said "the americans treaten us again", what would you expect, it was a comunist song. In 2nd Grade i had to go to school in the evening secion, one day as i entered the class i noticed that i could not recognise a single face i was so embarrased that i turned around i don't remember who explained it to me but they had changed the time and mom did not know either and i had gone one hour too early and entered the morning class. In 3rd Grade don't remember much just that learning got harder, But i do remember while in that school a lady used to sell two saltines with sanwich paste in the middle for 5¢ ea.
Puerto Padre, Cuba -- Papi used to go to the farms and sell fresh bread there and bring back produce from the land; vegetables, plaintains, bananas, boniato[sweet potatoe]. Papi used to sell bread in this sacks made of some very white cloth. One time while in his Willy pickup truck he stoped at this small center in the countryside and he got off to a farm store, i stayed on the open bed of the back of the truck i was riding in, when he came back did not notice what was about to happen next and got on the drivers seat and took off on the dirt road; i started to scream loud, PAPI,PAPI, pluss a men runing also, well this men had tied the rope of his horse to the car and the poor horse was runing a fast pace to keep up with the pullof the rope, papi finally stoped. And here is the horse so you see, "Con la lengua afuera" (with his tongue sticking out). Funny ehh!

Puerto Padre, Cuba -- Papi also worked as a bookkeeper in Puerto Padre, i use to like when he brought me back this thin papers which now i relate to adding Very similar to my old spintop toy.

machine tape and i found them so valuable, Los Reyes Magos where only allowed to bring three toys. I allways liked toys like the Greyhound bus, Vintage Matchbox, No.66 Greyhound Bus with regular wheels and amber windows. Made in England by Lesney in 1967

Vintage Matchbox, No.66 Greyhound Bus with regular wheels and amber windows. Made in England by Lesney in 1967

i had more than one of this. I also had a 'trompo' that when you push the top repeatelly it spins super fast and makes this nice sound when holes on the side cut thru the air.

Granjel Cuba -- This is the farm where my Grandfathers on my Mothers side lived, the soil is RED and everything grows well. My GreatGrandMother lived there, they had lots of land, at nite you could see the stars of the milky way and they had no electricity they would sometimes set their watches by the sun.

Granjel Cuba -- This place had nice tasty juicy Anon & Guanavana fruits, lots of Ricardo & Odelidia in the sugar cane field in Granjel.

'cañas' [sugar cane] and a 'grua'[crane] to load the 'bultos' [bunches] of sugarcane to the railroad cars.

Every so often the train would come to the dead end railroad crane-depot and would bring 1 or 2 empty cars and take the full ones we would write grafity on them with white chalks over the rusted surfaces.

The workers would run the crane with a 'junta de bueyes' 2 bulls tied toghether to pull.

[a mixture of thick greese and cotton twine] they would stuff it in a box between the sets of wheelsof the cars.

Granjel Cuba -- Fidel Castro took away all their land and gave them a small poor house in Victoria de Las Tunas.

I used to like in the morning Granfather Arturo would milk the cows and we would get up very early, run to him with a tall aluminum glass to get some milk sometimes he would spray us directly from the cow. We would put on top of the warm boubly milk some brown sugar, DELICIOUS.

Granjel Cuba -- In our visits to Granjel or Grangel we would go to the farm school of Diging soil

my uncle Abimael i remember one time helping dig a ground trench in a zigzag shape in preparation for when the Americans atacked, silly since one does not atack farms with no importand roads or bridges and almost no population.

On the way to the school me and my uncle would hide under a narrow dry riverbed bridge in the railroad to watch the underpanties of a girl that would walk over the railroad tracks.

Céspedes, Cuba -- After my third grade we moved to the town of "Carlos Manuel de Cespedes", we meaning Papi, Mami and my 3 brothers at that time: Joel, Elias & David.

Céspedes, Cuba -- This town has a 'Central' [sugar cane mill], there is other 'centrales' in nearby towns, one is "Central Estrella" can be seen from our house on way out of town in our street i think also named Estrella, recognized by their smoke & smoke stack.

In the fouth grade in Cespedes i had this mean teacher Sra. Rodriguez that would spank me with a piece of wood and i was always afraid to ask for permition to go to the bathroom and this one time she did not let me go i pissed on my panth right in front of the class, so my mom arranged for me to be moved to this other school i think private.

That school was in the main street of town, i remember som of the names of the kids, this two brothers and sisters named Nalio Escobar & Sonia Escobar. I used to like Sonia the day she left for the United States i when to her house to say goodbye.

Cuba, city of Florida -- When we left Cuba another girl nickname sounding like 'Chiqui' that lived west of us in Calle Cocalitos traveled all the way to the city of Florida in Camagüey Cuba to say bye to me at the bus station and i remember writing her from spain but got no answer; Mom told 'el guagüero' [the busdriver] that she was going to send him a new tire from USA aparently there must of been a coment abt the condition of the bus tires.

Spain --The trip was in Iberia Airlines the stewardesses dresed in red and we use to have some folder with a picture of one.

Upon arrival to Madrid the goverment of Spain was very nice, used to provide the Cubans with a certain amount of cash money to get started, that got us to a place we lived a short time and at this place here is a love-hate story:

Principe #11 near "La Puerta del Sol", this was a one room place [exactly 4 walls] but with a balcony, in that balcony mom used to place the milk and process gelatin since it was cold, that was out refrigerator.

Spain --I did not go to the school there my parents did not wish me to be indoctrinated by Catholics.

Spain --Sometime there during the precidency of Francisco Franco [Caudillo de España] i saw from the balcony clashes between the joung people and the police and they beat the protesters with sticks, i saw blood.

We used to count the days and weeks the Spaniard men mentioned above would take between bath and in turn he would critisise the Cubans of wasting to much water.

Spain -- At the begining of arriving at Principe #11 we adopted certain ways of doing things from the other Cuban there, we got a cooking thing its an LP gas tank and the top part that you had to buy at the store or used from a Cuban family leaving to US, i think our tank was new because as i remember we talked about the time we first exchanged the empty one that we got a used one, full of LP in return, there was this place the size of a small closed around the hallway were everyone would take the LP to cook, and thats where i would try to tald to this girl i used to like i forgot her name something like 'Nuvia' or 'Nodales' and i remember touching her upper legs, i saw her later in NJ USA.

Spain --Here the natives eat sunflower seeds all the time while at the parks and you see the seed 'husks' near the park benches.

They spit all the time on the sidewalk wich a men cleans every morning with this short water hose he attaches to predetermined spots near the street and presure cleans it. [an extreeme solution to an extreeme problem].

They also at the restaurant trow the seafood shell on the floor to show that the restaurant did good business i guess.

Spain -- I used to go to the San Gerónimo street, there was a passaway under the intersection, undergrownd and i would play in the pinnball machines most of the time i would check the coin slots or the retun hole and sometime i would find peseta coins and posibly other times mom may have given me some money but it would be very rare cause we where very poor and papi had to work in the constuction places sometime in hi-rises doing hard work and traveling in the Metro [subway] i was a kid that would linger around people and see them with money at play. Those were FUN and HAPPY times.

The first time i saw a Metro i though they were pulling my leg cause i coud not beleive there would be a train under the ground, there was this very small entrance of an elevator in the midle of the sidewalk and you expect me to believe that we are going down and i would find a train there?

Paseo del Retiro [an amusement park at the end of the subway, see picture of Elias And me.]

Spain --The trip to US was paid with money lent to papi by some pastors he knew from the time he studied in California.

Papi did a very wise and intelligent desicion and got us a itinerary with a stop in Paris France.

France -- The plane from Madrid to Paris i think was Air France. While at the airport in Paris there was a small inconvenience we were in the posecion of a taxy bowcher ONLY ONE, we where 6 people and the taxis there the custom is limit 3 or 4 and add to that we did not know french we finally found i don't remember exactly if it was a taxydriver or two that cooperated with us. Papis english helped.

We stayed at a hotel paid with vowchers, the name of the hotel is embeded in a cloth to polish shoes that papi used to have, now i remember the "Bedford".

Walked with a map to the river Sceine or Ciena got near to we could see the Eifel Tower and walked thru some underpasses similar to the one that princess Diane Had the axcident.

We saw the glass covered boats and i took some pictures with a box shaped camera that produced those square photos.

The trip to THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The land of Freedom was made on PanAm a jumbo 747 plane that was in service for about two weeks, i remember papi though me to say tomato juice please. And i remember being surprised that it worked, those were the first words i learned in english. I also got a PanAm folder they give to kits with cut & paste pics of the PanAm & the Empire State building, etc. We were for 15 hours inside that plane cause there was a snow storm i New York and we had to land and wait at Washington DC.

We lived in an apartment house in Manhatan owned by a lady named Sonia ____ from church, we used to go to John 3:16 church.

We did not go to school there because mom was afraid of the neighborhood it all seemed very dangerous compared to the NJ side.

West New York, N.J. -- Johny Capron was the Pastor at the church in Hudson & 50th Street his wife was Belkis Salazar they helped us move over from NY. Upon arrival there the people in the church would bring food and place in the front and they gave us lots of it to get started.

The Summit Ave bldg was razed in the year 2001[source Elias, David & Jonathan 2001]

One day in December of 1970 at the church in West New York i saw as my future wife walked in and sat down i imediatelly got a crush on he, as time passed i kept trying for her attention and she would only answer she is "not thinking in boys at this time" she is Maruchita [Maria Caridad Cabrera].

Union City N.J. -- While living here in New Jersey papi worked very hard and i remember people sometime would not treat him nice because of the religion, and because he would not lye or smoke or drink like the others. He mostly worked as a Janitor, he once bought a used car that rarely drove, only to move it from spot to spot in the neighborhood so it don't look abandoned i don't remember the reason for not using it.

Union City N.J. -- Papi managed to repay the loan to the people in California who lent him money for the trip from spain to US.

Union City N.J. -- My 4th brother, Jonathan was born here in NJ by 'C' section.

Version 1.0 (March 30, 2002) [upon receipt of this delette all previous versions]

The Story of My Life by:
Samuel Acosta©

It all started in Cuba when my fathers Sperm met my mothers ovum on c. friday Nov 4th 1955. And 41 weeks later on Friday, Aug 3rd 1956 abt 7am I was born . Everybody woke up at 4 am.

Ricardo Acosta in 1955

The Story of My Life by: Samuel Acosta©

It all started in Cuba when my fathers Sperm met my mothers ovum on c. friday Nov 4th 1955. And 41 weeks later on Friday, Aug 3rd 1956 abt 7am I was born . Everybody woke up at 4 am.

Ricardo Acosta in 1955

The Story of My Life by:
Samuel Acosta©