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I've been to Cuba many times.

My grandfather left Cuba when Castro came into power and literally left everything. He had two suitcases and two kids and showed up in New Jersey and waited for my uncle to meet up with him. Imagine - there were no cell phones back then!

I have not been to Cuba, though if you count the stories my grandma told me growing up, I've been there in my head many times. I think someday I will see it, when things are different there, but I've come to feel like I really am a Miami girl.

My mother told me many stories about her childhood in Cuba. Living there had a profound impact on her and how she regards herself.

I'm actually Cuban-born, born in 1956, the year Fidel Castro came into power, and my father moved my family to Miami a few years later when things were starting to look bad.

Despite the situation in Cuba, I had a chance to play on the national team; and compared to other baseball players and other people in Cuba, I had the opportunity to live at a level that was not very high class but in the middle.

A profoundly disturbing thing you discover very quickly traveling in Cuba is that the most dangerous person for Cubans isn't the police or even the secret police; it's their neighbor. Anyone can report you for anything 'outside' the revolution - even if you haven't done it yet.

I was sent down to Cuba. Everything had been prepared with the help of Congressman Johnson and his staff.

In 1958, I was shooting a movie in Florida, and I decided to go to Havana, Cuba, to see what it was like.

Then I received support from the Government to compete for my country, and to represent Cuba in competition.