ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608160033
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
Cubans Juan Garcia O'Farrill and his wife, Ileana Lucia, are among the many refugees who are working hard to establish themselves in their new country.
Garcia O'Farrill, 44, operates a food stall - the Paradiso Cuban Restaurant - inside the Roanoke City Market building. His wife works at Elizabeth Arden Co.'s cosmetics plant. Until this month they both also worked second jobs at a Golden Corral restaurant, putting in 17-hour work days.
Garcia O'Farrill said he has a good business on the market, where a friend and fellow refugee helps him. Business has picked up, he said, allowing him to quit the second job and devote more time to his downtown Roanoke food stand. He thinks it will get better, little by little as customers become more familiar with Cuban food; he hopes to have a larger restaurant someday.
The Garcia O'Farrills left Cuba on a raft Aug. 31, 1994. After being picked up they spent eight months at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. They have been in Roanoke for a little over a year, part of an influx of more than 100 Cubans into the valley recently.
``There was no freedom in Cuba. It was not possible for me to live in Cuba,'' he said, recounting being jailed for political reasons when he was 15. In 1994, the Castro government was letting people leave Cuba because of ``the fire in the country,'' Garcia O'Farrill said, referring to political dissent.
``It's different in this country,'' he said. ``Everybody has the opportunity here. The problem is how you take the opportunity.''
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Cuban immigrant Juan Garcia O'Farrill came to Roanokeby CNBwith his wife a year ago after spending eight months at an
internment camp. Seven months ago he opened Paradiso, a restaurant
featuring Cuban cuisine in the Roanoke City Market Building. color.