The East Side Freedom Library and CWA Local 7250 invite you to El Amor, La Cana y el Mar: Love, Sugarcane, and the Sea: A Story of Cuban Exodus 1980, a conversation with Hector Capote.

Register here to join this event on Zoom or watch it live streamed to ESFL’s Facebook page.

ESFL has long been interested in providing a platform for our immigrant neighbors to share their stories. We have also long been interested in the relationships between the United States and Cuba. Here is an opportunity to explore both topics, through a conversation with Hector Capote.

Hector Capote is a Cuban refugee who left Cuba as part of the Mariel boatlift in 1980. He was 7 years old and traveled with his mother and three younger brothers. As he became an adult, he went to work for AT&T Wireless in Miami and became a union activist. Hector became a steward in Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 3122 and an Area Vice-President. For more than a decade, he lobbied in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. for workers’ rights. He was also elected Vice-President and Treasurer of the South Florida AFL-CIO, and was an AFL-CIO liaison with Jobs With Justice South Florida.

When Hector moved to Minnesota, continuing his employment with AT&T Wireless, he continued his union activism. He became a steward with CWA Local 7250 and in 2017 was part of the bargaining team that negotiated a contract which covered more than 20,000 workers in 21 states. He has also been an advocate for transgender rights as a long-time member of Pride at Work, and has been a member of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. Hector is also a music historian and radio DJ, with a podcast called “World Revolution Radio.”

Hector will present some of his and his family’s story and will be engaged in conversation by ESFL’s Peter Rachleff. You can join us and ask questions of your own, too.

Free and open to all

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