My Irish Eyes In Cuba

An interview with SMC Counselor Kathy Flynn, M.A.

Phyllis Thompson

Kathy Flynn, a "New York Irish American" was born in Queens Village, New York. She is a faculty member of Santa Monica College's Office of School Relations, working primarily with the outreach to high school students and other special populations who eventually will come to SMC. She formerly counseled in the CalWORKs department, a program that assists in the guidance and support of students who are welfare recipients. She has acquired quite a following among students who are single parents aspiring to graduate and become professionals. She shares in their growth as she recounts her college beginnings at age 30. She is known to gently confront students when she sees they are sabotaging themselves. She always makes sure that she finds as many resources as possible for students, making referrals and pushing them in the healthy direction they sometimes seem to avoid. Kathy often says, "…It takes a village to nurture someone, right? I let people know that I really care about them and WANT them to have a better future." Her professional life is not unlike her personal life. Unknowingly, she has been preparing the last twenty years of her life for a quest that has taken her across the globe to an unlikely place. Her adventure and passion for people carried her to Cuba. It was in Cuba where she found part of her roots and became the instrument to reunite a lost and forgotten family.

What is your title and role at Santa Monica College?

I am a counselor and I am assigned to the Office of School Relations.

What college did you attend?

I originally attended Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, starting at age 30, and then transferred to California State University San Bernardino. My undergraduate degree was in child development and my masters in educational counseling combined with marriage, family and child counseling.

Was this field of work your major aspiration or goal upon graduating?

Yes, when I filled out the application for the graduate program we were to check where we wanted to counsel. I wanted to counsel in a community college because my own education made such a major change in my life.

You are bilingual, correct?

Yes, I speak Spanish and read and write it.

When did your experience with Latino culture begin?

Well I started taking Spanish after I finished graduate school and was working as Counselor Coordinator for the Adult Reentry Center at San Bernardino Valley College. Arbie Villarreal, a fellow colleague helped me by meeting with me once a week to practice my Spanish. He was an ESL teacher who was so positive. Arbie would always make me speak to him in Spanish.

Then I started going to community events such as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce meetings, Kiwanis sponsored events that served the Westside there (In San Bernardino the Westside is the Latino barrio). Arbie and I would go to companies that employed large numbers of Mexican Americans to recruit them for ESL etc.

Is it true that you were the first woman president of the Kiwanis Club of Greater San Bernardino?

Yes! The Kiwanis Club of Greater Bernardino is an award-winning club that has had numerous projects working with the community. That was the greatest leadership experience I ever had. Imagine running a meeting at 7:00 in the morning and everyone had to get to work so it had to end at 8 am …one hour for introductions, committee reports, announcements. We had a lot of educators and 'politicos'there. Joe Baca was on the school board and was just running for assembly. There was Jerry Eaves and Judith Valles (current mayor of San Bernardino), and Kiwanis regulations stated no political agendas…so I fined Joe Baca a lot. I saw him at Arbie's funeral last month and laughed about that. I had a lot of fun. I would do outrageous things. For example people were fined if their picture was in the newspaper. One time I took an enquirer and cut and pasted with pictures from our local papers of George Brown, Gloria Macias Harrison or other members.

How did your series of journeys to Cuba begin?

Now that is a long story, but I'll try to shorten it. Actually I believe, in a spiritual way, it started with those practice sessions with Arbie Villarreal. Little did I know, I would develop a relationship with Cuba!
Because I was so involved in the Latin American community and wanted to learn more, I applied for a one year sabbatical for the 1994-95 school year to travel to some countries from which our immigrants came, and learn about their school systems (I visited over 150 sites). I learned about their customs and improved my Spanish. I also went to several southeast Asian countries. While I was getting my visa in the Mexican Consulates office I noticed a Cuba travel brochure.

On sabbatical I spent a lot of time in the Yucatan of Mexico where Cuban trips were advertised and I found that Americans could easily go there (even though we were not supposed to). I thought about going, but being on sabbatical I didn't dare do something so brazen. When the year was up I returned to Mexico and I decided to go to Cuba. That was 1996. I went on a 2 day package tour. I walked around Havana, talked to people, exchanged addresses with a few people and thought, 'I wouldn't come back here'. Well, lo and behold the two people I exchanged numbers with wrote to me. I didn't even know that mail could be exchanged between the US and Cuba. The teacher I met kept asking for things, but I developed a strong correspondence friendship with a young doctor named Rolando. The letters went on for 2 years.

Did you know that you had family in Cuba at the time?

Not at all! But in January1998, I suddenly remembered that I had always heard from my father (who died in 1996) about having a blind cousin in Cuba who played the piano--and played it very well. No one ever asked him why we had a cousin there or anything. I probably last heard that in the 60's. So I wrote to Dr. Rolando and asked if he had ever heard of that person. I didn't even know my cousin's name. That summer I went to Cuba for the second time, and met Rolando's father, who was a historian for the government. I mentioned it to him also. That fall I flew to Massachusetts to visit my father's only sister (who was in a convalescent home) to find out more information about our mysterious relative.

What did she tell you?

She told me his name was Frank Flynn, 'the same as your father's' she said. She said my grandfather's brother, another Frank Flynn, went to Cuba to work as a diver installing underwater lines and married a Cuban woman and they had one son. She also mentioned that my uncle had died in the US and that my stateside Irish American family had never seen or asked about the son. She put his age at about 85 or 86. That was it.

So when did you become "Detective Flynn"?

I returned to Habana in June of 1999 and Rolando's father recommended that I ask around the old hotels in Habana. The first night Rolando and I walked over to the Hotel Ingleterra and asked the piano player in the restaurant about Frank. "!Claro que si, todo el mundo conoce a Fran'Emilio!" [Of course! The whole world knows about Fran' Emilio!] She knew that he had played in some restaurants but didn't know where. She put us in touch with another person. Rolando and I spent two days following one lead after another. Not only was he alive but I was finding out that he was famous and probably on tour in Europe. Finally we went to Club Imagenes and someone told us that his son may be there in an hour. We returned and the helpful waiter called one of the Romeu (a family of musicians) who phoned Frank Emilio's son, Jesus Flynn. I spoke with him for the first time. My cousin was in Spain with Jesus' daughter, a flautist, who lives there.

What did Jesus tell you about his father?

Frank Emilio Flynn Rodriquez was a legendary pianist in Cuba. I found out that he had been born after 17 years of marriage between my uncle and his wife. He was delivered with forceps which caused the blindness. His mother died when he was less than 5 years old. His father returned to the US several months later, wrote to Frank for 5 years, then he never heard from his father again. He lived with his aunt and uncle who died early so he felt that loss of family all his life. And now that I had found him, the family did not even tell him about me.

Why not?

They thought it would be too stressful for him. They wanted to wait until he returned from Europe. They had another European tour in the fall and (the day Elian was found). I flew to Zaragoza Spain to meet this 'little boy', Frank Emilio, who was left in Cuba when he was 5. It was so beautiful. He performed at a Spanish blind organization called ONCE.

It is amazing how heavily involved you were with the Latin and Hispanic culture long before you even knew of your famous cousin. How did you manage to get him out of Cuba and arrange an incredible family reunion?

It was by coincidence that Frank Emilio was invited to open a month of jazz at Lincoln Center in January 2000. (Wynton Marsalis had heard him several years before in Cuba and had Frank Emilio y Los Amigos perform in Janurary of 1998).My sister still lives in New York and so we planned this big reunion. He met 50 cousins he had never met.

I visited him again in the summer of 2000 and he expressed an interest to come to Los Angeles to play the piano…for a year he said. (* He had been registered as an American citizen by his father and registered for 20 years but his passport and papers were lost.) The State Department destroyed records of any American living in Cuba and so he was stuck there after the 'revolution.' Cuba had him registered as an American citizen but the U.S. didn't consider him a citizen. As soon as the US cut ties, Frank was cut off from Braille materials which he had received…a side effect of the embargo.

When did you bring him to Los Angeles?

I brought him to LA February 2001…actually the Kiwanis of Greater San Bernardino sponsored him….and it was fantastic. I became his musical director and publicist, and Frank met tons of people from whom he had been separated for over 40 years. My house was filled with ethnomusicologists, radio broadcasters, music students, santeros y congueros. It was wonderful.

What were his first LA experiences like?

His first performance was with Andy Garcia in a memorial service. He was visiting professor spring quarter at CSULA and the students followed him around to every concert. He celebrated his 80th birthday at a small restaurant in Hollywood attended by friends and family, Frank Llopis (whom he played with in the 1940s), Xavier Becerra, Miguel and Edward J. Olmos, and naturally a grand 'descarga' with the CSULA jazz band students. I still really miss those guys.

Did he return to Cuba?

Unfortunately he died 7 weeks after returning to Cuba. I miss him so much.

I'm sorry for your loss. You are known for your personal activism on behalf of oppressed women & children. In knowing your cousin and traveling to Cuba, how did that "activism" spread?

My main activism is pushing education and moving forward. I spread that everywhere…to nannies in Beverly Hills, clerks in stores, shoeshine kids in Chiapas ('estas estudiando?')…So I do encourage people in Cuba to do things to improve their life. Many are just waiting and immobilized. Many are beaten down mentally. But more than that, knowing my cousin…really knowing the Frank Emilio, the educator and advocate for blind students, I am motivated in my new work to get the message of education out to as many of the disadvantaged in our city, almost as a dedication to him. I can see him smiling as I go to Jordan High School and Edelman Children's Court.

There is so much that must be done in Cuba, politically and socially. Are there any specific issues that you are passionate about and would change if you could?

Passionate, moi? I didn't think that at first but after 8 trips and spending time with people and really knowing what they are living I see things differently in Cuba--not the 'educational' tours that take the people to the hospitals with painted walls and grass. There is so much oppression. I believe the United States has helped to sequester the Cubans. The embargo needs to go. It hasn't done what they thought it would do. People need to be allowed to go in there and interact with the Cubans. Cubans need information and ideas from democratic nations. They are prohibited from accessing the internet. Dr. Rolando, who was supervising 100 family doctors, was not permitted to access the internet. They are not allowed to call or fax out of the country. Tourists would bring new ideas …revolutionary ideas. I remember watching the Academy Awards with Frank Emilio last year and him saying in his polite voice, after seeing all the awards for 'Crouching Tiger…..' "Katica, why the United States doesn't do business with Cuba?" Good question right? I remember my Chinese friend telling me that when the United States started to permit travel and do business with China the human rights abuses diminished. Makes sense if the world is watching.
We could free the people of Cuba and bombard them with newspapers, computers and internet access; telephones for the people on every corner instead of bombs wherever we are dropping them this week. A young Cuban teacher told me 'We don't know--they tell us everything is worse outside of here; please send me some newspapers' (Read Granma.com for a few weeks and you will see what Cubans are permitted to learn) There is a massive amount of misinformation that goes both ways with Cuba and the U.S.

In what ways were your cousins affected?

In 2000 Frank needed medicine that was not available in the local drugstore (which had the medicine in old oatmeal type boxes) It was available in the tourist hospital but Frank Emilio, who traveled around the world, was not allowed to buy it. Only I could buy it by showing my American (imperialistic) passport. I went to the emergency room in which Frank Emilio was brought the day he died. I doubt if there is a veterinary hospital in California in such poor condition. This was the emergency room equipment…one stainless steel table !!

With your most recent visit to Cuba in January 2002, how would you compare their higher educational system?

Their music and cultural instruction is great. For example, Jesusito Flynn, Frank's grandson, is at a musical institute with very rigorous training. The school provides individual instruction by a professor 3 times per week at her home. Of course, before the 'revolution' the little Irish American Cuban blind boy had the best teachers also so I believe the system reflects Cuban standards not communist standards. They are not being taught to think, to learn about things like philosophy and world religions. They don't know what's really going on outside of Cuba.

What message could you give to students of higher learning that would empower them to change our world for the better?

In 1990, I went to a wonderful conference, 'Evolution of Psychotherapy.' The great masters of the field were there….Ellis, Szasz, Hillman, Fritz Perls, many many older men…many who had survived Nazi Germany. They charged us with being politically responsible and making changes and paying attention to government. I think we need to exercise our rights to write to policymakers, protest when necessary and not just accept the status quo. And then you know the golden rule is a simple concept that can be put into place in any field in which we study.

Phyllis Thompson is a student of Santa Monica College and Internal Vice President to Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.

For more information about Frank Emilio Flynn's "Lost and Found" life, go to LATimes website- www.calendarlive.com - type in the SEARCH box "Frank Emilio Flynn".