By Marie Mulvenna

Fourteen years ago a young Cuban teenager arrived in Miami, fleeing Castro’s Cuba with his two older brothers, leaving behind the rest of his family and facing an entirely new environment and life.

Looking back now, Carlos Sans, recently named program director of the Resettlement Services of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, says it was a “traumatic” experience but one that opened a whole new and wonderful world to him.

Carlos has been appointed by the archdiocese to fill the resettlement post held for 12 years by Father Raphael McDonald, OFM, who is currently serving his order in Peru. An intense and soft-spoken young man, Carlos admits he is both excited and challenged at his new position which combines his duties in resettlement and handling immigration cases as well as his duties as a social caseworker to Spanish-speaking people of Atlanta. He has served in the capacity of caseworker for three years.

Presently, he is working through the United States Catholic Conference’s Department of Refugee Services on several cases, one involving some Ugandans, who are coming to join relatives in Atlanta who had been processed a year or two ago by Father McDonald. Another case currently in process concerns refugees from Hong Kong.

When Carlos arrived in Miami at age 13, he was under the auspices of the Catholic Welfare Bureau there and attended a special school for Cuban youngsters who had come to the United States without their parents. After four years in Miami, Carlos went on to Milledgeville, Georgia, attending Georgia College and receiving his BA degree in psychology and social work.

He first arrived in Atlanta when he heard there might be an opening with Father McDonald’s office for a Spanish-speaking caseworker. Now he vows he would never leave Atlanta “for any other city on earth.” He speaks of the city with warmth, explaining it has the flavor of a big city but a “certain” something unique that puts it far above all the other cities he has visited throughout the country.

He also views the influx of other nationalities to Atlanta as a very strong indicator to its claim of hoping to become an international city. “All these new people will influence the city in some way, not just as small ethnic pockets in different areas, but learning to get together, live together and learn from each other. The future of Atlanta could be a very exciting one indeed.” He joked about having a “Greek” hamburger for lunch, adding with a smile, “What other city would give you that choice?’

Carlos’ duties will also include work with the Cuban St. Vincent de Paul Society, aiding newcomers in finding basic needs for their new lives here. He speaks enthusiastically of current dialogue with other agencies in the city serving Spanish speaking people as well as those of other nationalities. “We have started meeting and talking to see the needs of the new person to the Atlanta society and how we can meet those needs.”

Part of his many duties as a caseworker have involved dealings with emotional problems of the Spanish-speaking population, but he adds, it is quite a bit more than that. In many cases, he serves as an interpreter, often going to various schools to discuss pupil problems with teachers, then explaining the situation to the concerned parents.

Very often, he says, it is simply that the parents do not understand the school procedures and he provides that vital personal link.

“Everyone knows about the generation gap in any family when youngsters hit those teenage years.” But, Carlos explains, “add the ‘culture’ gap to that and you very often have a real problem.” He explained that families adapting to an entirely new culture often encounter severe internal crises as a result of the change.

In most cases, he said, the child adjusts rapidly to the American cultural scene while the parents find it extremely hard to release their traditional outlooks and the culture of the mother country. “Neither wants to listen to the other,” he said, stating that sometimes the parents view the quick adjustment of their children as radical and hurtful to them. “What’s needed,” he says quietly, is a middle ground, where the parent can learn from the child about the new society and how to adjust to its mores and culture while the child can learn from the parents about the society of the parent country.”

He related a humorous incident involving his own family, stating that when the rest of his family came, his sister wanted to go to a school party wearing a mini skirt, like all her new friends. “My parents were absolutely shocked and resisted it but when we explained that that was quite appropriate and not something radical, they went along with it and we avoided a crisis.”

“Today,” he said, “I spent three hours at Grady Hospital serving as an interpreter, trying to convince an older Spanish-speaking lady that she should have treatment prescribed. I suppose you could say the job involves dealing with people, not only with emotional or guidance problems, but with just adjusting and understanding their new environment and how to cope with it.”

Carlos still has many cases coming to his warmly furnished office at the Catholic Center, both young people and entire families. He is also presently working with the office of the marriage tribunal in dealing with marriage cases involving Spanish-speaking persons. At present, he has a Spanish brochure ready to go out to all the churches describing the varied services and aids the office has to offer. It will be a mixture of casework, immigration, job needs, St. Vincent de Paul needs, interpreting, etc.

When he looks back now on 1962 and his arrival in the U.S., Carlos says it was indeed traumatic but adds quickly that it was a great experience. “It exposed me to a different culture and also made me responsible for my actions at age 13. I learned a great deal from it.”

Carlos’ parents, two more brothers and three sisters are now in the U.S. His father is a psychiatrist on the staff of Central State Hospital in Milledgeville and one brother also lives in Atlanta.

As far as returning to Cuba, Carlos says he would very much like to go sometimes to see all his relatives but adds he wouldn’t want to live there the way the country is at present. In his personal opinion, he did not foresee any drastic change in Cuba’s structure in the near future and said even if Castro were overthrown there would still be a need for someone or something to unite the many factions and people.

At present, however, Carlos Sans is more than happy to be in Atlanta doing his work for the archdiocese and serving the foreign newcomer to the city in multitudinous ways.