Dr. Benito H. Prats got a telegram from his sister Olga in
1987 saying that his 91 year old mother Eduvigis was seriously ill and wanted
to see him again before she died.
By then the telegram as a means of communications had been
all but killed by cheap long distance and Western Union no longer sent couriers
to your door to deliver telegrams, instead they looked you up in the phone book,
called and read it to you, then mailed you a computer-printed copy. Since most
of the telegraph offices had closed, to send a telegram you called Western
Union on the phone and dictated it to them at around $1.10 per word, 10 words
minimum, to Cuba. Western Union had an arrangement with all the phone companies
so they could bill you on your phone bill.
Email and faxes finally killed the telegram. Western Union delivered the
last telegram January 27, 2006 and closed up shop. The company called Western
Union today is not the same company. Today's Western Union purchased the name and the only thing they do now is send money.
But in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, telegrams were the only way to get fast messages
out of Cuba and they were expensive. Telephone calls had to be booked weeks in advance because,
some say, the Cuban telephone company had to schedule in the limited number of
government eavesdroppers that listened in on all calls; and then sometimes the
quality of the sound was really bad because they were still using the 1951
12-circuit undersea cable between Key West and Havana that had not been
replaced due to the continuing tensions between the governments.
It had been 23 years since Benito had left Cuba. The first
telegram explained the urgency and asked him to rush to the Cuban
Interests Section in Washington (then at the Czechoslovak Embassy) to apply for
a humanitarian visit visa and the second said that she, Olga, would take his
telegrams (she called them cables) to Cuban immigration to start the paperwork
there.
Benito had been working on a visa since August 4th. It took
more than two months to get the paperwork and tickets. He and Mariana went on a
charter flight from Miami to Camaguey in October. Benito diagnosed a potassium
deficiency when he saw her and she went on to live a number of years more.
 |
| Eduvigis Respall Pereira vda. de Prats and her son the doctor Photo taken in her home, No. 4 Avellaneda Street October 10, 1987 |
The first telegram reads, “08/19/87 Benito, present yourself
urgently at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and ask entry to Cuba
because Mama is gravely ill and wants to see you before dying request urgently
the documents here they are filed your sister loves you. Olga.” Notice there is
no punctuation on telegrams. They count as another word each. This one was 39 words, $42.90.
The second reads, “9/12/87 Mama remains same Monday I will
return immigration with your cables and I’ll tell you love. Olga.” 16 words, $17.60.
 |
| 1970s photo of Eduvigis Respall holding a photograph of her son, Benito Prats |
