[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 18, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING RODOLFO SANTAYAN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 18, 2009

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I would like to take this 
opportunity to recognize the extraordinary life and work of Rodolfo 
Santayana, a Cuban refugee turned entrepreneurial pioneer who recently 
had the intersection of SW 8th St. and SW 122nd Ave. in Miami named in 
his honor.
  Mr. Santayana arrived in the United States after fleeing the despotic 
Castro regime of his beloved Cuba. He was only seventeen, but managed 
to help provide for his family by holding two jobs as a paperboy and a 
gas station attendant.
  However, it would not take him long to discover his calling in the 
family business. His father, Rodolfo Santayana, Sr. sold jewelry door-
to-door in Cuba and beseeched Rodolfo Jr. to seek out his old customers 
in Cuba who also found refuge from the tyranny of Castro in South 
Florida.
  After studying jewelry design at Miami's Lindsey Hopkins Technical 
Education Center, he took on his father's request, opening his own 
store on the street that now bears his name.
  He was highly regarded in South Florida not only for the beauty of 
his work but also for his ability to honor the Cuban heritage with his 
jewelry. He incorporated some of the symbols of his lost, but far from 
forgotten, Cuba: palm trees, ox pulled carts full of sugar cane and 
Cuban silver coins.
  It is a testament to the greatness of our country that a man driven 
from his home to America with only a suitcase full of hopes could use 
his talent and drive to forge a remarkable life for himself. Now, he is 
remembered as one of Miami's most prominent businessman and jewelry 
artisans, even after his death.
  May he be remembered, not only on his street in Miami, but by the 
entire nation for his beautiful portrayals of a free Cuba.

                          ____________________