Marisella veiga biography of george

By Tiffany Coelho | gargoyle@flagler.edu

One of Marisella Veiga’s earliest memories of her childhood in America is learning how to ice skate before learning how to speak English. This was part of the adjustment after fleeing Cuba in the 1960s with her family and resettling in the cold, northern climate of Minnesota.

Veiga’s story is unlike most you have probably heard about Cuban exile because instead of staying in Miami, or where there was a large population of Cubans or other Latin Americans, she and her family moved to Minnesota, a climate quite the opposite of the tropical Cuban climate, to better their chances to survive as a family.

They chose to leave Miami where the Cuban culture was “not watered down” to Minnesota where there was only American culture. They had to adapt to the American way of life as they were exiled from their home country.

Veiga, an adjunct English professor at Flagler College, published her memoir in early April of this year on her family’s exile