They Escaped Cuba, Now They Welcome Florida’s Move to Warn American Kids

Students in grades 6th through 12th will begin learning about the horrors of Communism, the evil ideology that killed 10 times as many innocents as the Nazis did in the last century.

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by T.J. Muscaro
December 13, 2025

It has been more than 65 years since Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s regime pushed Dionel and Marina Cotanda to leave their beloved Cuba for the United States.

Unmarried and with only $65 between them — because the communists had taken the rest of their money — they found exile in Tampa, Florida.

“They thought this was temporary,” says their daughter, Lourdes Cotanda-Ercia.

However, as the pall of communism settled over their homeland, they made the United States their home, going on to marriage, military service, academic degrees, business successes, outspoken community leadership, three daughters, and several grandchildren.

As interest in communism grows among young Americans, the Cotandas, like other Cuban immigrants, welcome Florida’s decision to create the first school curriculum that teaches the dark history of the ideology that they know all too well.