Palmas de HERENCIA

Message from Mr. Luis Mejer Sarra, President of the Board of Editors of Cuban Cultural Heritage.

It was several years ago while we were exhibiting our company "Sarra Natural Products" in a booth at Cuba Nostalgia at the Coconut Grove Convention Center that I was approached by Bertie Bustamante and Armando Cobelo. This was my first introduction to the work of Herencia Cultural Cubana. Armando had been an investor of mine several years back in a failed attempt to manufacture a medical device that would measure graduations of teeth enamel colorations to scientifically match them to new teeth implants. Bertie was an old childhood friend.

I was soon invited to attend a Directors meeting at the boardroom of a downtown bank where for the first time, I was exposed and highly impressed by this group of visionaries giving of their time and energy to pursue a project that, as was explained to me, was an effort to preserve our Cuban Cultural Heritage for present and future generations.

As a Cuban exile myself having left my Cuban home for the last time at the age of 22 never to return, I burned with an intense nostalgia never having forgotten the essence of my heritage even though for all the intervening years I had lived in almost Anglo environments in Boston, Philadelphia, Palm Beach and finally, in Miami. I was soon attending all of their meetings at their Coral Gables headquarters.

What can I say of a nonprofit organization staffed by volunteers and perennially bereft of funds to operate. This is a situation conducive to a lot of tensions of which I was a witness time and time again.

This speaks so highly of the commitment of this totally motivated group that I could not help but fall in love with them, their work, their consuming patriotism and their willingness to sacrifice everything for a cause that became mine in no time.

I was elected to the Board of Directors first and then made Secretary of the organization.

It was to mine and to everybody else's surprise that circumstances conspired to have me elected to the honor of the Presidency of this highly prestigious organization, an honor I am sure will require a herculean effort on my part to live up to.

This is a historical moment for the Cuban cause because we can see the miracle of freedom emerging on the horizon. The day is approaching in which all Cubans, those in exile and those still on the island, will embrace each other in a sincere expression of brotherhood. That day the sun will shine over our country with the light of freedom and all of us Cubans will have our homeland and our home again.