Escape from Castro’s Cuba: ‘Singing saved my sanity’

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Dulce Maria grew up in rural Cuba among sugar fields and wide green plains, surrounded by music, family and folk songs which she began singing from a very early age. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power and in this new order, people who didn’t support his regime were branded as traitors, including Dulce’s father who was arrested. To keep her safe, Dulce and her eldest sister were sent to live with their grandmother in the capital Havana. The flat was next to a music school and Dulce could often be found standing by the school’s fence, mimicking the students’ vocal warm ups. One day, Dulce went to buy milk for her grandmother from a corner shop when Fidel Castro walked in to buy cigars. Already known locally as a singer, she performed a patriotic song for the new leader who called her 'the future of Cuba'. Soon after, his government offered to send her to the Soviet Union for opera training but her parents refused. As political pressure mounted, the family caught wind of a secret programme called Operation Peter Pan. It was organised by the Catholic church and supported by US government, and saw over 14,000 Cuban children relocated to the USA. Dulce and two of her siblings were among them. She was first housed in a Florida refugee camp and then spent three very difficult years in foster care in California. Later on in life, Dulce would reinvent herself as Candi Sosa and rebuild her life through music. This interview contains a description of child sexual abuse in the second half of the programme. Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Marcia Veiga Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707 (Photo: Dulce as a child smiling into the camera. The middle photo shows her wearing a sequined dark blue dress smiling at the camera while holding a microphone. On the right photo, she is playing conga drums. Credit: Courtesy of Candi Sosa)