About Us
“Leaving your country is not easy. After several conversations with my husband, Manuel Hidalgo, we decided to leave Cuba, the land where we were born, because we wanted to discover new horizons. We were not the only ones that took the risk; other compatriots wanted to leave the country as well. We bought a nineteen foot-long boat in which we planned to transport almost twenty people across the Straights of Florida to the United States. On September 1, 1994, we left town. We all had mixed feelings in our hearts of nostalgia, fear, and joy. Nostalgia for leaving our family and friends, fear for not knowing what we were going to face, and joy to discover something new..something that could bring back hope to our lives.
After some stressful events, we were able to secure our place on the ship, North Carolina, which was going to the east coast of the United States. It had about four-thousand other Cubans on it. We finally landed at a U.S.A. military base on September 8, one week after departing our homeland. We stayed there until March 28 of the following year.
Here in the United States, we found within ourselves the strength to persevere. After I gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Helen, we were hired to work for the Home Shopping Network. We worked there for ten years. One day, my husband suggested to me that we do something different: "Estella, let's buy a truck to sell food" and I answered, "Let's do it!" We went to Happy's Flea Market where we talked with the manager and made the necessary arrangements. We started running our business on Saturdays and Sundays in July of 2007. In August of 2010, we stopped selling the food in our truck, because we met the owner of the building situated on 3150 Williamson Rd. We arranged to rent the building. Then, we remodeled the place and that is how we started the Cuban Island Restaurant.
Many people who come to America achieve the dream they had when they left their homeland. My husband and I have achieved ours with effort, hard work, and sacrifice. Herein, I have told you a story of two people who arrived in this country with the dream of having a dignified and stable life."
-Estela Gonzalez Perez
