Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We all have different stories. And I was five. And I remember that day when we got on the plane. I remember what happened when we were at the airport. Remember, it's Communist Cuba. We were enemies of the state.
[00:00:13] We were usanos. That means worms.
[00:00:17] So we were basically discriminated. And we were also Christians. We believed in God. And in Cuba at the time, believing in Jesus Christ was a crime. You had to believe in Fidel Castro, the Communist Party, Che Guevara. That's why when I see pictures of Che Guevara, I boil.
[00:00:36] Welcome to skin deep. I'm Dr. Ana Chacon, and today we have a very special guest joining us. Get ready for some expert insights you won't want to miss.
[00:00:47] My name is David Rodriguez. I graduated from Medical School in 1981.
[00:00:52] I did three years of internal medicine and then three years of dermatology. I am in practice since 1989, and I do clinical research studies as well as a clinical practice in Coral gables and Kendall. Dr. Ann I've met since she was a little girl. I've known her parents, and her father grew up in the same place. I grew up in Cuba. Amazingly enough, it's a small world.
[00:01:16] And so I got to watch her grow up and then go off to college in medical school and dermatology.
[00:01:21] I think the thing that motivated me is the fact that I enjoyed seeing all sorts of people, both men and women, children and adults. And also that we did procedures. Dermatologists do surgery. They do lasers, they do biologics. And I do a lot of clinical research studies also.
[00:01:39] So it's not always the same thing. Well, members of my family were doctors in Cuba. So somebody that would be like, my grandfather was already a doctor. He came to Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania, then went back to Cuba, and then went to Paris, France. And he finished his medical degree in Paris, France. And he was my neighbor, and they were like my grandparents, and they delivered me. He delivered me into the world.
[00:02:02] So my neighbor spoke three different languages along with Spanish. To me, I don't like labels because I'm just me.
[00:02:10] There aren't very many Hispanics in medical school, per se.
[00:02:14] But that never deterred me, just like I'm sure it never deterred Anna. She wanted to pursue her career and wanted to do what she wanted to do.
[00:02:21] They always said it was going to be very difficult.
[00:02:24] But for me, it was rather easy in the sense that if I put in the work, I got what I wanted. I've never been denied anything that I've gone for. For me has been the Research in dermatology. I've been involved with the Skin of Color. I'm one of the founding members of the Skin of Color Society. Susan Taylor now is the president to be of the American Academy of Dermatology. And she and I started it. I've written a book co edited with her and other dermatologists at the Skin of Color. So those are very fulfill for us as physicians and especially academicians that we can do. You know, when you write a book, it makes you feel good and when you can review things.
[00:03:05] And one thing that I noticed when we did that book is most things in the Skin of Color are anecdotal. By that I mean there isn't a lot of research on it. There are very few studies about it. So hopefully with younger dermatologists like Anna coming along, we can do more and more research in people of color. And when I mean people of color, because I've been asked that before, everybody has color. Why are you doing this?
[00:03:30] Basically, we talk about Hispanics, Blacks, Native Americans, but the idea that these people are not well represented in the medical field. The Skin of Color is a society. The Skin of Color Society.
[00:03:45] You can apply and you can join.
[00:03:48] And then we started doing other things. We were interested in education. There was no one 10 years ago doing any of this. And we started doing it. And now we have a society. We have a president, a vice president and so forth. I am no longer on the board, but I do things for the board. I think you never give it up, and I think we have a lot of work to still do.
[00:04:10] Most people in medicine are not Hispanics or blacks, nor should they all be. I think the important thing is to be able to have a diverse group of people.
[00:04:20] And if you have a doctor that is like you and does things the way you want, you're more likely to go and follow their procedures and the things that they want you to do. Well, I think the greatest accomplishment was just making an organization to recognize a skin of color. And we were very well received.
[00:04:39] And now it's just taken off and it's all over this country and in Europe and in other nations.
[00:04:46] So when we go to the World Congress in Guadalajara, we'll be represented. When we were in Paris, we were represented. And when we were in Buenos Aires, we were representative. And it's important to understand that it's not just skin of color. It's all skin, but it's people of color. So Hispanics, Blacks, Native Americans.
[00:05:08] In this case, we have Haitians, we have Amerindians.
[00:05:13] So we want to be able to know how to treat them the best. And I think both of us think that we know how to treat them. But there are certain protocols and certain things that we can do to make it even better. And that's where the skin of color comes in. We can set up pathways way to work that out that can help them. And I think that's important.
[00:05:32] Well, I don't think that there's any right or wrong way, but if you come from a family that's over judicious in cleanliness, which many Cuban Americans are, they use Clorox and they use certain things. Those things are caustic. You don't need to overdo it. And if you have sensitive skin, that can exacerbate the problem, make it worse.
[00:05:53] So I think we are not far from what our parents did. Another thing that we do that most dermatologists don't do is shower or bathe every day. You know, we tend to overdo it. And sometimes you don't need to up north, if you're not dry or you're not dirty, not to bathe every day. But you tell a Latin or a person of color, especially Hispanic of the Caribbean basin, and you say, no, you're crazy. They're sick with a cold and they're going to take a bath. They're going to bathe because they feel that's very important for them. So what do I try to do? I mitigate it. I say not very hot water, not long showers, and then pat yourself dry, don't rub yourself dry, and then use an emollient or a cream because we tend to dry our skin out.
[00:06:41] It is important to know that for many people and not just Hispanics, if you have people that have a lot of money, a good way to entertain kids is to take them to the beach, take them to the play field to play sports. And so that always comes with the risk of excessive sun exposure. So what do you do? You mitigate it. You try to wear sunscreen, you try certain things. But for many people, especially Hispanics, we think that because we can tan, we're not going to get problems with our skin. And that's a false starter. All people get affected by the sun, even people that are darker pigmented. So I think it's important if you take your family to the beach, put on sunscreen, reapply the sunscreen. Now, what sunscreen we should use, I mean, we can debate that back and forth, but at least a 15 or a 30 and reapply it every couple of Hours.
[00:07:32] I think that's important.
[00:07:34] Well, not only is sun burn or sun damage from ultraviolet light, but also aging, elastosis, chronic long term light exposure can lead to changes in the skin. So there are a lot of people that aren't burning in the sun, but they look very aged and wrinkled. And it's from chronic UV light. UV light is okay a certain amount, but not a lot. It's not to the extent that we do.
[00:08:02] Not to the extent that we're all jogging and outside and we're spending. And I think it's the incidental sun exposure is what I call it.
[00:08:11] The amount of sunlight that you get on a daily basis when you're just getting into your car, when you're going to the store. For example, today I went to the bank, I made a deposit because yesterday was a holiday.
[00:08:23] I had to park. I couldn't find parking near the bank. I had to walk two blocks, go to the bank. Then I went to my car and then went to work, parked outside. So if you think about it, the average person gets about half an hour of daylight in South Florida. Now, that does not include what I do if I go jogging, if I go to the pool, if I do other things during the day. I think it is an oxymoron. You know, we want to look better, we want to look younger. And one of the simplest things to do is to avoid the sun.
[00:08:55] The other simplest thing to do is to not smoke, eat well. And yet we don't do that.
[00:09:02] We overeat, we smoke and we get a lot of sun.
[00:09:07] So I think it's some of the basic things to do is to protect ourselves from the sun and just don't get exposed to the sun. We all have different stories. And I was five and I remember that day when we got on the plane. I remember what happened when we were at the airport. Remember, it's communist Cuba. We were enemies of the state.
[00:09:26] We were usanos. That means worms.
[00:09:30] So we were basically discriminated. And we were also Christians. We believed in God. And in Cuba at the time, believing in Jesus Christ was a crime. You had to believe in Fidel Castro, the Communist Party, Che Guevara. That's why when I see pictures of Che Guevara, I boil because he was a murderer. He was a horrible person. I think like a Jew looked at Hitler.
[00:09:54] But that day that we left, when we were leaving my father, we were getting on a plane and I remember we were walking up the steps and my father was taken off the plane.
[00:10:04] My mother was hysterical because she didn't know what was happening. You're basically like at the mercy of the militia. And he was taken into a room. He was stripped, he was checked. They did a rectal exam. They wanted to see if he was taking anything because they wanted to arrest him. And they couldn't find anything. So here I am. I'm five years old. The youngest brother of my brother was, I think eight or nine. And my sister was 13.
[00:10:31] And I remember I had a pacifier and a chain. And the chain was baby blue, was painted baby blue. But the chain was an 18 karat gold chain. And I was carrying. I was smuggling the 18 karat gold chain out of Cuba. And my mother, in the heel of her shoe, had had her brother, who was a shoemaker, drill a hole and put a thousand dollar bill. And she was carrying it in the heel of her shoe. So the man, they thought the man was the one that was going to do something, bring money. But it was the wife and the youngest kid that they used me as a smuggler to get out. But they were all our things that were being stolen from us.
[00:11:09] So that's a very.
[00:11:11] For me, it's a very important time. I remember it very vividly. I remember landing in Miami and they took us aside. We asked for political asylum. I remember there were children on the plane that were alone and I believe they were Pedro Pan, you know. And then we had relatives here and then we were fine. They gave us a parole and we became Americans. And aren't we lucky that we are here? Isn't it a wonderful country?
[00:11:35] And I think America is strongest when it is kind. And I think they were very kind to us.
[00:11:40] We should be kind to everybody.
[00:11:43] There should be legitimate reasons for us to come here. Well, we went from a house that everybody had their own rooms to having four people in a room. For me, that was because we went to our uncle's house and they were also poor, you know. And we were there maybe a month. And then we rented our own house again. We were allowed by the American government to have a parole. So my father was allowed to work, we were allowed to go to school, and we began a life in America. So for me, the biggest change was that I went from a big house where everything was so huge to small rooms, sharing things, you know. But I was a kid. It didn't really bother me, you know, but little did I know that we went from having things to not having much of anything except we had our freedom. Freedom of religion and freedom to make our lives.
[00:12:34] I mean, I'M sure Anna can say it and I can say it.
[00:12:38] I was free to become anything I wanted to do, and I did what I wanted to do. I've traveled all over the world and have as a. Not only as a dermatologist, but as a free man. And very few people in Cuba can say that. Very few people are as free as I am, you know. And then I give that to America. We were the first from our town to get out of Cuba, you know. So once my father rented a home.
[00:13:03] I remember it had a family room and a front room, you know, what we call a sleeping porch. And for the longest time, there was always somebody sleeping there. There was always some woman. I don't remember if they were related or who left Cuba. Their husband was in jail and my mother was helping them. So there was always a continuation of people. We were never alone anymore. There was never a lot of room, everything. You know, the showers were staggered because there were eight people in a house, maybe sometimes 10.
[00:13:34] Betty we were close. The family was close. We went on the weekends. We went to the beach. We went to Crandon Park. We went to El Farrito, which is, you know, the Cape Florida lighthouse. And it was fine.
[00:13:47] Everything that was working with little money and everything, but we were happy, you know. And I was just a kid growing up. I remember him because he's a different generation, but he's also the same apart. But in Cuba, we didn't really. I mean, I was five and then I came here, and then we were in different parts of Florida. I went away to school when I was in high school, so. But we would connect because always Cubans connect, you know, there's always like. It reminds me of Italians, la familia, you know. And even though you're not related, you're still family, you know. And I mean, I always laughed. I used to say, there's. We always have cousins everywhere, you know, they always have. And who are you? You know, and it's just the way it is. But within the necessity, there was kindness and there was love among family and friends.
[00:14:35] So it's very easy that his uncle would come to my mother's house, and my mother would be there on Saturday and I'd be watching cartoons, and then she invite him for lunch and other people would come. And so that was the way it was. There was always family. Our houses were never empty because we always were helping somebody out or giving something. And sometimes it was.
[00:14:58] Some people didn't have a second meal, so we would help them out. Well, I think that every patient that comes in deserves my very best. And I always have to put myself in their shoes.
[00:15:10] So, for example, I saw an older man today. He came alone. He was like 80 some, not confused, but not altogether with it. And I can't just give him a prescription and walk away. I know what he needs, but I need to make sure that he understands it. And then I spend some time with the patient, and then I make sure that one of my staff members that speaks Spanish is able to communicate with him or her. And sometimes people come alone, they're dropped off in wheelchairs. And it's rather sad because it is our family. It is la familia. So not all Hispanics are kind to family. And I want to blame the system, maybe that they're working too hard. But sometimes we.
[00:15:51] We want things. We want to work to make money, to get things. And sometimes the thing that's important is the love of the grandparent, the love of the parent, the love of the child, and we forget that. So every once in a while, I have to remind myself, because if not, we're nothing. We're no better than a dog or a cat. Well, I wanted to do things that were noble and good. I always thought that law was sneaky. There was somebody that said, it depends on what the word is, is.
[00:16:19] I don't know. None of you remember, do you? Bill Clinton, you know, I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Because it depends on what you consider sexual relations. Anyway, it's neither here nor there.
[00:16:30] But law can be manipulated, but medicine cannot be manipulated. You either have cancer or you don't.
[00:16:38] Now, the gray area in medicine, which I think that Anna needs to do more of and the younger people need to do more, is how to convincing people to take better care of their themselves. How do you convince somebody to wear sunscreen? How do you convince somebody to go every year to have a skin exam? You know, and that takes nudging, that takes education. That takes time. And that's where I think we're failing. You know, Hispanics, every. Every year, people die of melanoma because they don't go to a doctor in time. It can be caught early and be taken care of every hour. Somebody's diagnosed with a melanoma every hour. And they're not 90, they're 40, they're 30.
[00:17:21] Every year, I lose one or two patients from melanoma, but by the time they came to see me, it's too late. I think it's actually very interesting. I think it's a human nature. Thing, I think it's denial. If you admit that you may have an illness, then there's something wrong with you. And maybe you go down a rabbit hole that you don't want to do.
[00:17:42] But I think what we need to do is say, no, there are physicians that can help you. There are things that we can do, and education is important. We need to do that. It's telling our story.
[00:17:53] What Anna and I need to do is tell the story of how we can better take care of the skin, how we can help them. Why, when I look at people with severe acne, why have they let it go so long? Well, sometimes it's because they don't have money for insurance, but a lot of times they have insurance, but nobody has approached them and told them, look, we have ways to take care of this. We can get you better. And I think that's important.
[00:18:17] At the end of the day, the communication has to be there between the physician or the healthcare provider. And now that we have nurse practitioners and PAs, we can have those other people, the ancillary people, do that for us. Because I don't think there's enough dermatologists in this country. I think we have 10,000 active dermatologists in a country of 350 million people.
[00:18:39] That's not enough. Humans are not always easy. You know, there is the hui factor that I mentioned before.
[00:18:46] What is the latest trend?
[00:18:48] You know, we do prp, we do certain things, we do peelings, we do lasers. And lasers are wonderful, and I use lasers a lot, but lasers are not the cure for wrinkles alone.
[00:19:06] Avoid the sun, get better nutrition, do the things that you need to do early on.
[00:19:12] Every time I see people going to sun tanning booths, and hopefully they're going to be outlawed if they're not outlawed already.
[00:19:20] It's a risk for melanoma, it's a risk for skin cancer. But again, some people want to look tan, some people want to look darker, but it shouldn't be. We have to work against that. You know, it's like people with the obsession about weight and the obsession about thinness and the obsession about all the other things that our society tells us to look at and do. It is medicine. But we also are the number one healthcare providers of Botox, of fillers, and also that helps for beauty, that gets rid of wrinkles, and it does work and it makes us look better.
[00:19:58] So there's nothing wrong with Botox or fillers, but. But I think the basics have to be there. You have to protect yourself from sunscreen. You have to use wise practices. You know, don't be out at 2 in the afternoon getting sun or 12 o' clock in the afternoon getting sun. And then come to my office and get a peel or get a laser. It's ridiculous. We'll do it because we are business people. But is it wise for you to do that to your body? No, I don't think it is. It's like I don't understand why people still smoke and newsflash. Another issue that's very important now is wine and liquor. The sugars in the wine and the liquor is detrimental to your health.
[00:20:39] So zero wine and zero liquor is good for you. But many of us, and I'm looking at all the people in this room, like to have a cocktail or a drink or a glass of wine with dinner or sometimes two. And maybe that should be forbotten or not allowed. Well, I met through her parents because I didn't know her. She was born to her family and her family is related to my family, you know, because they came from the same part of Cuba, although her mother is from another country. But since she married her father then, you know, once you marry or get into a Cuban family, everybody's Cuban, you know, there's always that push, you know, la familia again. So that's how I met her. And then she. She was younger and I believe you were a child with some skin problems. And she came to my office and I took care of her. And then she went off and became a famous dermatologist. Maybe I had something to do with it, maybe I didn't, but I'm glad she went into it, you know, she's an asset for dermatology. Well, I think the important thing is I've been in practice over 30 some years.
[00:21:41] I did research for a while and I still do research from perspective of clinical research practice where I do studies for pharmaceutical companies and they come into my private practice and we do studies. I don't do them in my Carl Gables office, I do them in other areas. But also I think it's important that dermatology has evolved. Dermatology now is a lot more aesthetics. It's a lot more related to plastic surgery. And a lot of people are going into that because that is more lucrative for them and it's more exciting for them.
[00:22:15] I like the standard dermatology, the basic medical dermatology. And I still find that it is interesting with the studies because we're doing things that we were not able to cure maybe a couple of years ago. I mean, the Biologics are phenomenal. You know, the way psoriasis. I've had people that have had psoriasis that would look at me the way I'm looking at you. They were embarrassed by the way they looked and they now look at me and smile. I had a woman kissed my hand because of the medicines that I gave her for her psoriasis because her husband was intimate with her before. I mean, these are impactful things in the privacy of your own practice. That medicines helped. And I don't know if you know psoriasis, but psoriasis is a terrible disease and it's debilitating. You know, atopic dermatitis that can affect, since you're a little child, their skin becomes thickened or lichenified, it becomes dark and it becomes painful. Painful to the touch. Imagine a 10 year old child, a 15 year old girl that has grown up with all of that by the time they're 25. You know, I have people in Miami in the height of summer with turtlenecks up to here and down to here because their skin is all damaged from the sun, from their disease. And so they can't have natural spin, they can't do that. And now we have ways to stop it. So I think that's nice. I think that's good. She's actually very kind. She calls me and I say, yeah, go ahead. Because we all have different ways of coping with things. But I think it's nice that she's able to do that, that she's able to travel, that she's able to be a world traveler and become a specialist within her field. And I think that the beauty of dermatology is it allows each one of us to do what we like to do. And again, I think it's a, is a process of this country. It doesn't box us into just medical dermatology or esthetics dermatology. We can do either one or a little bit of both. And then we can choose what we want to do. Like for example, I can choose certain insurances that I don't want to take or certain people that I don't want to see.
[00:24:30] Because I'm a free agent, I'm a free person. I taught at the university for many years and I did it for free. And that was my way of giving back. I will also see anybody if they don't have income to pay for it. I will treat them for free. And that's something that I've always done and I'm sure Hannah would do the same thing. So we have that freedom. And I think the freedom is in America, the way the healthcare system is set up in America, and it is changing, but we're fighting more and more for the healthcare dollar.
[00:25:00] I don't know if you know, but dermatology is the hardest field to get into that in ophthalmology. So the fact that they got into dermatology, they're in seventh heaven.
[00:25:10] At the University of Miami, there's like 10,000 applicants for seven positions. Ten thousand applicants for seven positions.
[00:25:19] At the University of Illinois, it was like six or seven thousand for three positions.
[00:25:24] You know, you could pick and choose and many positions are already taken. So already for the next year, they already have people online.
[00:25:33] So sometimes you have to wait two or three years in order to get in.
[00:25:37] So I would say enjoy your life, do what you love. And that goes for anybody and within medicine. And if you're a dermatologist, pick what you'd like to do, Pick where you want to practice. There's some people that like pediatric dermatology, they work just on children. Other people like geriatrics, pediatric dermatology, older people, older skin, pre cancers and cancers.
[00:26:01] I think I do a little bit of everybody from the first day of life to the last day of life. And that makes me happy because every day I come in, I really don't know what I'm going to see when I open the door. You know, for me, I'm very lucky. I'm very happy in what I do. You know, it's easy for me. It isn't always easy. Looking back, you never know. But what I tell her, everything is going to be fine.
[00:26:24] You know, there's a saying that I think all of you should think about because you're all young. This too shall pass. Whenever you have a bad day, you know, this too shall pass. But in terms of work, do what you love. And if you do what you love, you're going to work as hard as you can, whether you're a doctor, a lawyer or, you know, anything, a teacher.
[00:26:45] For me, it was easy. I was a child. I really didn't know anything. And I started picking up English very quickly. I think it was very hard for my parents.
[00:26:54] For them, it was very hard. And my older sister was hard. My older sister was in college and she went from being in college and having her life ahead of her to then being forced to leave Cuba to come to Miami and become a nanny taking care of kids, because that's what she could do and that's what they would pay. And then she Also went from never working in a factory or anything like that to working in a factory to earn income, to help us. She was the older, the oldest child in the family. And then when I came along, I was the youngest, when I basically had it pretty easy. It wasn't the same as the way our life was in Cuba, but we were. I mean, I went to school, we went to dinner, we did everything normally. But my mother never saw her father again. My mother never saw some members of her family again.
[00:27:47] And so that was sad for her. And I don't think she ever forgave the Communists. And for that, I feel that there's a certain amount of. I don't want to say hatred, but I do want to say that I want them to have comeuppance. I want the Communists to suffer. I feel that.
[00:28:04] I feel that what they did was evil and it was wrong.
[00:28:07] Just like you look at what happened yesterday. What a wonderful thing with the peace accords.
[00:28:12] But those people were slaughtered on October 7, you know. So anyway, I guess I have to work on my karma, you know, be very, very calm and not wish them harm.
[00:28:23] My uncles were put in prison.
[00:28:26] They were spit upon. My aunts were spit upon. We lived in a small town, Giza, in the province of Oriente, which is now Grandma. They changed the name to Fidel Castro's boat, you know. And yes, they considered us gusanos worms. And now they want me to go and spend money and go to Cuba, to the people that did that to my family. Why would I ever do that? So in Giza, they have primary school. And my older brother, I told you we were Christians. My older brother, I think, was in third grade or fourth grade. And they told him, ask Jesus Christ for candy.
[00:29:06] And my brother raised his hand, yes, I would like Jesus Christ to bring me candy because he believed in God and he believed in Jesus Christ.
[00:29:13] Then he said, the teacher said, look, there's no candy. Jesus Christ doesn't exist. And then he made the same statement to the class. And then he said, ask Fidel Castro for candy. And the student said, fidel Castro. And then he opened up the drawer and gave candy to the kids that said that. That's the way indoctrination begins. It happened in Eastern Europe, it happened in Russia and Soviet Union, and it continues to happen now in Cuba and all these other places. The interesting thing is that my brother went home and told my father, and my father went to the school and told the teacher, how dare you say that? How dare you say that? He says, well, Jesus Christ doesn't exist. And then he says, but we believe in Jesus Christ.
[00:29:59] And they said, well, we don't. And anybody that believes in Jesus Christ doesn't belong in this school. So he kicked my brother out of school, out of fourth grader, third grader. And my father said, how dare you? And he grabbed him like this.
[00:30:13] And he is my son and he has to be here, and he has a right to an education.
[00:30:17] And then they accused my father of trying to kill him, you know, and then they took him to court and they were going to have paredon. I don't know if you know that paredong is where they put you up against a wall and shoot you. But it was all done to humiliate, to cause fear on the people that could cause problems to the revolution.
[00:30:36] And so when my father was in jail, some of the military people went. My father was a big person in that community.
[00:30:43] And they said, you're either with us or against us. And if you're against us, this is only the beginning. So they scared him. So I think 30 days later, my mom and all of us were on a plane to Miami. And we were lucky. We were the lucky ones. And we were able to get out as a family.
[00:30:59] Some of my cousins, some went through Spain, some went through Mexico, and families were split up, and many people didn't see each other. I have a cousin that didn't see his mother and father for eight years because he was sent to Spain because we have Spanish relatives. And he was sent to a farm in Spain with cousins, distant cousins.
[00:31:20] And so that's sad. That's horrible. And some people were killed, you know. Well, I think Cuban Americans are very interesting people. They are hardworking, they are industrious, they are intelligent. They make sure that they study. They do the best that they can. Some people call us the Jews of the Caribbean because we care about how things are done. And we came to the United States and we worked, worked, worked until we studied. I mean, my sister redid her education again, and she worked as a nanny. You know, there were people that were lawyers that were cleaning floors in Miami beach, in hotels.
[00:31:59] So those of those people that are in this room right now that are Cuban Americans that were born here, you know, the hard work was done by maybe your grandparents or your parents, you know, the estrangement from a different country, they did the hard work, you know, and we're lucky. And I think.
[00:32:16] I don't know of anybody that's upset that we're here.
[00:32:20] This is a great country. Well, Peter Pan was a way of the Catholic Church to help get children out of communist Cuba. Usually Catholic parents send their children, usually boys that were going to be of military age so that they would not be conscripted into the Cuban communist army. And the Catholic Church found them homes in the United States of America.
[00:32:43] And that was a good way to get out of Cuba. But then the parents were in Cuba, the kids were in the United States. Sometimes the sister was in Cuba and the children, the brothers were in the United States. Usually they got the boys out. But it was hard on families and some people resented it. But most people I think are happy about it. And I think it was a good thing because if you thought about it, we were afraid of the Soviet Union. We were afraid of what was happening.
[00:33:10] And, you know, getting the children out to the United States was not bad in my opinion.
