The group were rescued by an oil tanker off the coast of Daytona Beach, Florida.
He acquired enough money to buy land and property, and his family had electricity and TV, unusual in Cuba in 1957.
[3] Seeking adventure, he crossed the Florida Straits with nine others, settling first in Miami Beach.
He flew his wife, Teresa, and two sons to Miami the next year and eventually bought his own store in Hialeah, Florida near a race track.
Having success, he opened a bigger store that catered to a more mixed clientele eventually leading to his own wholesale business in 1972 in the Jackson Memorial Hospital district, serving customers with roots in Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos.