'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

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'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

August 24,
2017

'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

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'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

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Jessi Calzado-Esponda lives in the United States but spent her early years in Cuba.

Her family lived in Havana. Electric power was undependable. The 29-year-old
woman says her family would turn to music when the neighborhood lost power.

Music was always part of my life even from a very young age. I remember that
sometimes when the lights would go out in Cuba, all my family would come out with
guitars and there would be singing and there would be some dancing.

Jessi Calzado-Esponda (center) is seen at home in Cuba before she left as an accidental refugee
at the age of seven. (J. Soh/VOA)

This memory is one of few Calzado-Esponda has from her childhood on the island

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'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

nation.

She left at age seven but not by choice. Her aunt had decided to flee from Cuba on
a small raft. The young Calzado-Esponda and her grandmother stopped just to say
goodbye. But disorder broke out and the little girl and her grandmother were on the
raft when it launched. Neither could swim.

So, Calzado-Esponda became an accidental refugee, floating away from her home.

Literally in the blink of an eye, I lost my mom, my immediate family and my

beloved Cuba, Calzado-Esponda said. She would not see her family again for almost
20 years.

The United States Coast Guard found the raft at sea and took the child and her
relatives to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They lived there for several
months before they were moved to Tampa, Florida.

That is when Calzado-Espondas American life began; it is a story almost as unusual

as the one that got her to the United States. At one time homeless, she later
launched a travel agency which specializes in group trips to Cuba.

Homeless in America

Calzado-Esponda remembers her first years in the U.S. as happy ones, but she
missed her parents and brother.

Several years after their arrival in Tampa, Calzado-Espondas aunt killed herself.

It was like losing a second mother all over again, Calzado-Esponda said. The severe
financial loss made the situation more complex. Her aunt had worked in a good-
paying job.

Calzado-Esponda and her grandmother had little money and moved into a homeless
shelter.

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'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

It was just really, really, really hard, Calzado-Esponda told VOA. Sharing a
bedroom with strangers and having to eat meals at set times were not things she was
used to.

But something wonderful happened when she was about 12 years old. A music
teacher and shelter volunteer took an interest in Calzado-Esponda. The teacher
urged her to play the piano and other musical instruments.

This led to a six-year study program with what was then the Gulf Coast Youth
Choirs. She received financial aid to pay for her training.

Traveling with the choir, Calzado-Esponda developed a love of traveling, which

would be important later in her life.

Almost 20 years after she left Cuba, Jessi Calzado-Esponda now goes back regularly to see her
relatives. (J. Soh/VOA)

During that period, the homeless shelter helped her grandmother find a job.
Calzado-Esponda says her grandmother never learned to speak English or drive a
car. But she was able to earn enough to move out of the shelter and into an

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'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

apartment.

Little by little, of course we struggled here and there, but we made it. And, again, it
was a lot to do with the community and the support that we got from our
community.

Cuba Inspires

Calzado-Esponda moved in her twenties to Washington, D.C. She found a job in the
office of a U.S. congressman. But at 27, she suddenly faced another major
challenge. A car accident left her with a severe brain injury.

The injury forced her to leave her job. The young woman suffered some memory loss.
She could not remember peoples names or what she said to others. She was often
sick to her stomach and her back hurt.

Calzado-Esponda says the injury was one of the most heartbreaking things she had
experienced. But, slowly she recovered.

She says she still has some really hard days but that she chooses to get up the next
day and try again.

Calzado-Esponda got a visa to return to Cuba when she learned her mother was sick.
It had been twenty years since she left the island accidentally. She had never
returned.

Sadly, the day before Calzado-Esponda arrived in Cuba, her mother died.

So, the very first time I ever met my whole family was at my moms funeral. And its
one of those things thats very surreal and its also very bittersweet.

She says she was amazed at the love and support she received.

Just after the visit, then-President Barack Obama announced an easing of relations

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'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

between the U.S. and Cuba. That is when Calzado-Esponda started her travel
agency. She named it Cuba Inspires.

After more than a year of operation, her business is off to a good start. Among her
first clients were the reality television stars, the Kardashians.

Kim Kardashian (center) is seen in Cuba on a trip organized by Cuba Inspires. The Kardashians
were among Jessi Calzado-Esponda's first clients. (J. Soh/VOA)

Calzado-Esponda hopes to build on her success with events, such as the U.S./Cuban
youth choir competition, for which she recently won permission. She sees herself as
an unofficial ambassador.

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'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

Jessi Calzado-Esponda in her Arlington, Virginia based travel business, Cuba Inspires.

"Ive always considered the United States and Cuba kind of like two divorced
parents and, like, the United States being my father, Cuba being my mother. And it
is my job to kind of bridge the differences between both of them, because I love both
of them."

Im Dan Friedell. And Im Caty Weaver.

June Soh reported this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted her report
for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

aunt n. the sister of ones father or mother; the wife of ones uncle or aunt

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'Accidental Refugee' Sees Trouble, Tragedy and Success

raft n. a flat structure for transportation on water

blink of an eye expression very quickly

choir n. a singing group

apartment n. a room or several rooms that is used as a place to live

client n. someone who uses the professional services or advice of another

divorce v. to legally end ones marriage; to make or keep separate

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