LAKE MARY, Fla. — Casa Leon Jewelers is a family-owned business in Lake Mary that first started in Cuba in 1946. It’s now run by Ivette Valladares Barrios and her husband Rene Barrios.
What You Need To Know
- Ivette Valladares Barrios and her husband Rene own Casa Leon Jewelers in Lake Mary
- The business first started in Cuba in 1946 before moving the couple moved to America to escape communist control
- The Barrios remember their time in Cuba and voiced their support for those protesting in the country
"Then in 1960, communism took over. They came and they asked him for the key, and they took the store over and my grandfather had to stay working there," Ivette Valladares Barrios explained.
Both Ivette and Rene’s families risked their lives and fled communist control in Cuba to get to America. That was 60 years ago, but the memories are still vivid.
“They would kill them right in the streets on purpose to show everybody you’re either with communism or you’re going to get killed,” she explained.
She says it breaks her heart to see what’s happening on the island now because she understands the desperation.
“The violations of human rights in Cuba are horrendous. That is the biggest problem. There is no human rights. They have nothing. There is absolutely no respect and there is no food there is no medicine. If you go to the hospital you have to take your own sheets and your own soap,” Rene explained.
They also know protesting in Cuba may cost them everything there.
“They know that they are going to die they are going to be mistreated they are going to be put in jail,” Ivette said.
It’s why she will help anyone who comes into her store understand the real value of freedom.
Rene’s father was a boat builder. He made arrangements to get his family out in the middle of the night by boat, and they were saved by the U.S. Coast Guard. That same boat returned to retrieve other family members, but they did not survive the trip.