12 Cuban Families Go To New Michigan Homes Via Ann Arbor

Hope shone of the faces of weary men and women as they carried children and shopping bags filled with their possessions down the ramp of an Eastern Airliner in light rain toward the new friends and homes awaiting them.
Twelve Cuban families - who fled their native land after its takeover by Fidel Castro - arrived last night at Willow Run Airport from Miami, Fla., uncertain of the future, but grateful for their opportunity to make new homes in this strange new land.
The universal appeal of children and the warmth of people anxious to help them establish new homes immediately dissolved the language barrier when the Cubans arrived at the First Presbyterian Church to meet the American couples who took each family to its new home.
For directions and important speeches there was a volunteer translator, Mrs. Barbara Roose of the International Institute of Detroit, but no interpreter was needed when Americans and Cubans sat down together at dinner. A friendly smile or gesture made up for the Americans' meager knowledge of Spanish and the refugees' hastily learned fundamental English.
Rafael Rodriguez, 23, his 20-year-old wife and their two small children, made friends instantly with their hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Van Teglen of Eastminster Church in Grand Rapids.
Using all the English at his command after three months of language school in Miami, Rodriguez told of stealing a boat to escape with his wife, one-year-old daughter, and five other families two years ago. The refugees were escorted to Miami by the U. S. Coast Guard.
Rodriguez, a member of the army of former Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, began a series of job interviews today with five Grand Rapids firms while Mrs. Rodriguez began settling their completely furnished five-room apartment with the help of a Spanish-speaking church member.
The refugee families who are being sponsored by the United Presbyterian Churches of Michigan were greeted at the airport by the Rev. Robert F. Hermanson of Rochester, the co-ordinator of the state Presbyterian churches Cuban resettlement effort.
Grover Allison of Church World Service, who accompanied the refugees to Michigan, said that more than 50,000 Cuban refugees have been resettled outside Miami by four national religious agencies.
The Rev. Ernest T. Campbell, senior minister of the Ann Arbor First Presbyterian Church, welcomed the newcomers to Michigan, and the Rev. Samuel C. Weir, executive of the Synod of Michigan, offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the refugees' safe arrival.
Following the dinner which was served by the Youth Fellowship of the church, Michigan and Cuban families left for homes in Allen Park, Grand Rapids, Grosse Pte., Hastings, Jonesville, Port Huron, Southfield and three parts of Detroit where their sponsoring church groups have homes and jobs ready for the new residents.