Tags
Video Description
I know a lady who, twice in her life, has lost her country. She lost it the first time as a very young woman when, in Czarist Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution occurred and she barely escaped with her life. She came to Cuba, started again from scratch, once again built up a very successful competence, was doing very well. And this time, as an elderly woman, again, she lost her country at the time Castro took over. Now, losing one’s country once would be enough for most of us, I suppose. Losing one’s country twice would be enough for the toughest person in the house—but not for this very indomitable lady. She came to the United States where again she started from scratch, and again built up a very successful competence. And now as a very elderly person, I’ve heard her tell this story on more than one occasion and invariably someone in the audience, when she is finished, will say: “You poor, unlucky woman. How you have suffered. What an ordeal you have been through.” And her answer is always the same: “I, unlucky? Ah, no. I am one of the luckiest women who ever lived. Twice I have lost my country. Twice I have had a country to which I can go. When you Americans lose your country, where will you go?” I’ve heard her ask the question more than once. I’ve never heard a convincing answer.
November, 10, 1977
Hillsdale College