Host: No, this isn't Cuba. This is Niagara Falls, Ontario, home to Havana Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, and its owners, Daly's and Maria Fyfe, Guinness World Record holders for the largest mojito ever made. Niagara falls has a connection to Cuba that goes all the way back to 1824, when poet José Maria Heredia visited here and wrote the poem Ode to Niagara. Since then, generations of Cubans have been drawn here, like Abdiel Hernandez, a former cab driver and DJ who first came to Canada in the late '90s. Abdala, you have a lot of memories on Niagara. Used to be a taxi cab driver.

Abdiel Hernandez: I was a cab driver, a tour guide, limo driver here. When I moved here, we didn't know what to do. You know, the immigrant experience.

Host: So this is the first time for you.

Abdiel Hernandez: This is the first time eating here. I've been here at night time dancing. Hello. Hello. How you doing?

Host: Thank you. So much. Gracias. What is something that you recommend?

Abdiel Hernandez: The roasted pork in Cuba. Everybody eat pork. That's the main meat. Actually, they keep it like Cubans over there.

Host: Okay.

Abdiel Hernandez: You want to go really deep in the Cuban style? Like an authentic is a ropa vieja.

Host: I think I trust you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right, let's talk food. Because for a lot of people, for a lot of Canadians, when they think of Cuban food, let's be real, it doesn't get the best reputation.

Abdiel Hernandez: Reputation, exactly.

Host: Because it's predominantly resorts that people sample the food at. What do people need to know about real Cuban food?

Abdiel Hernandez: Cuban food? We got to go back in history, you know, starting with the Cuban indigenous population was completely exterminated by the Spaniards. So our main influence is Spanish food. European food from 1925 to 1959, a lot of people from China are Koreans and Arabs and Jews moved to Cuba. There is a Cuban food history before 1959 and after 59. So in Cuba, every aspect of life food, culture, literature, music and everything is heavily influenced by the economic and political model that has been in the island prevailing for the last 67 years.

Host: Beautiful stuff here.

Abdiel Hernandez: Look at this. This is traditional. This is tostones. And over there we have the shrimp cocktail.

Host: Delicious.

Abdiel Hernandez: Thank you very much.

Host: All right.

Abdiel Hernandez: Thank you.

Host: So you're the eldest in your family? Exactly how many siblings do you have?

Abdiel Hernandez: I got a brother that is four years younger and a sister who's two years younger. They're both living in West Palm Beach in South Florida.

Host: They're enjoying the sun. While you decided Canada and the cold would be the place that you would want to settle in. Why? Why Canada?

Abdiel Hernandez: I got a very special connection to Canada. I came to this country. The people who will help me come here. I work great human beings, great people. And they help me. How would I say feed into the culture? Very well. I liked everything I saw about Canada, especially the people.

Host: When you were in Niagara, you were talking about how, you know, when people get into your cab, they're asking you questions about certain places, you know, tourists, they want to know, what's that? What's that? Tell me. You you brushed up on your Niagara history.

Abdiel Hernandez: What if you want to get to know a town, if you want to learn the culture, if you want to get the pulse of a city, you become a cab driver. So you get to know people from all walks of life, from especially Niagara. Being such a tourist, internationally known spot, you get tourists from all over the world. I'm a councillor, but I'm not getting paid as a councillor. I'm getting paid as a cab driver because people vent their problems and they want your opinion.

Host: Tell me a little bit about the community, the Cuban community here in sort of, you know, the greater Toronto area, but southwest Ontario, because it's not a huge population.

Abdiel Hernandez: No, it's not a huge population because it's at the time the access, for example, to places like the United States, it was easier in order to arrive to. In Canada, as a Cuban, you had to come as a sailor, as a pilot, as a diplomat, as a musician, or invited by somebody. But because of the political and economical situation in Cuba, most Cubans will get denied at the Canadian Embassy in Havana because they are, how would I say potential immigrants once they come here, they will not go back.

Host: Help me understand a little bit why someone your age at the time would want to leave Cuba. A lot has changed in that country, but a lot hasn't changed in that country. What made you originally come out this way?

Abdiel Hernandez: My quest for freedom, my models, my sense of right or wrong, didn't align with the Cuban system, with what I call a dictatorship. A lot of censure. Not freedom of speech. No freedom of political affiliation, no economic freedom. For example, my salary at the hotel where I used to work was $970 dollars. But the Cuban government, posing as an employment agency, would take my salary and give me $1,520 a month. When you put economic hardship with lack of human rights and freedoms, it creates a desperate situation because there's no way for you to improve your life in Cuba. There's no way in the island to get out of that situation.

Host: From 2022 to 2023, Cuba saw the biggest wave of emigration in the country's history, with around a million people leaving the island, many heading to the U.S. now. For a country with a population of 10 million, that's 10% of its population leaving in just two years. 1 in 4 Cubans right now are over the age of 60. And that's because many of the people leaving are younger. There have been other waves of emigration the '60s, the '80s, the '90s when Abdille left himself, each wave leaving a mark on the people left behind, as well as the people seeking a new life abroad.

Abdiel Hernandez: Your family, your friends, everything that emotionally means something to you is left behind. And this great country, with all these possibilities, you don't have an emotional attachment to it. So it's a very difficult process. It was hard. It was tough. But at the end of the day, I'm grateful I did it.

Host: Have you ever been back?

Abdiel Hernandez: I've been back a few times, but I haven't been back for about seven years now. And the last three times was because of family dynamics I personally don't enjoy. I find it tense. Going back to Cuba. I rather stay in a country where I feel safe.

Host: You were saying your immediate family is in the US? Exactly. It's just you here in Canada with your wife and your kids.

Abdiel Hernandez: Exactly.

Host: You have some cousins, though, that you have still in Cuba. Do you keep in touch with them?

Abdiel Hernandez: Keep in touch with them. We just we send them medicine everywhere. Every month since Cubans economy has been decimated, the capability of the government, which is the only one who provides health services to get the medicines and the treatments for the people is greatly diminished. So they resort to their families abroad. My case is not the only one. If you look at the Facebook page, you see people, I need this medicine, I need this medicine. So it's the Cuban diaspora here in Europe, in the States, the ones who actually take care of most of their families. I know people very close to me. I'm not going to get too personal. That had to fake diseases and conditions here so they could have access to the drugs to send to Cuba. I'm talking about life saving drugs.

Host: What are some of the messages that some of them are sending you?

Abdiel Hernandez: I'll try to locate a couple of them. For example, this one says, my brother, I don't feel or I feel bad about writing you in these circumstances, but I would like economic help. I needed to see a doctor in Havana with the Angiologist. This is one Saludos Romano. I'm very embarrassed, but I need $30. Everything here is horrible. Let me let me see if I find another one. A big hug, my brother. I love you always. If you see Cuba now, if you see this now, you will not Recognize it.

Host: This is someone who, unfortunately you said has passed since you've talked to them. Who did they send you a message here?

Abdiel Hernandez: Things have changed. Everything for bad. If we don't send them money, they. They die. They die victim of all those diseases. So in order to keep them fed and as healthy as we can, because we also have our challenges here, you know, an immigrant has to adapt to the new country, has to face the same challenges that the people who live here have for generations. And on top of that, we also take care of our families.

Host: I'm going to acknowledge that we're having some delicious food while we're talking about sort of the issues in Cuba of people not having food. I imagine that must be hard for you to hear and see that this is your country, that yes, you left, but it's still that you're very proud to be Cuban. It must be hard for you to see the images and the stories that they tell you.

Abdiel Hernandez: It's heartbreaking. Many Cubans, when they come from the island, they feel guilty when they walk into a supermarket and they see all the availability of food that there is here. Their mind goes back to their friends and relatives back in Cuba, and they start crying and they feel guilty. Because now I got all this and my people down in the island don't have anything, and the government doesn't have the willingness to bring about the necessary reforms to improve the quality of life of people, like, for example, they did in China or Vietnam, even when they might, I might not agree with their human rights records when it comes to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of political affiliation, independent unions and stuff like that. But at least they brought about some economic reforms that improve a little bit the basic quality of life of their own people, the Cuban dictatorship or government or regime is very rigid when it comes to that. And the people are suffering big time.