With one suitcase between them, 11 year old Miriam and her parents caught the last flight out of Cuba on October 19, 1962, during the height of the Cuban missile crisis.
"As Russian missiles were in Cuba pointed at Miami, we were on a flight from Havana. Everything was fear-driven."
Miriam's brother who had left Cuba six months earlier, met them in Miami.
"We were refugees," she said. "We had to start over."
But they were refugees with marketable skills. It took some time for her father, who had been a lumberjack in Cuba to find work. But her mother, who was a seamstress in the garment industry, found work almost immediately after arriving in the United States.
Life in Miami was different -- radiation drills, fallout shelters, a different language and a new way of life. Miriam was one of only five children in her school who spoke Spanish.
Miriam was shaped into the person she is today by these experiences.
Miriam Vigoa didn't foresee making a Spanish olive oil splash in the health food industry when she added spices to her great-grandmother's herbed olive oil recipe and began serving it on menu items at Cafe Latte.
She was already busy running a business she purchased in 1983, Cypress Lighting -- -- maintaining and investing in real estate and helping run a coffee shop, Cafe Latte she opened with partner Kristi Linebaugh in 1995.
Sharing a bit of her heritage with cafe patrons who were requesting the Spanish olive oil -- now known as Canary Island Garlic and Herb Splash, made Miriam Happy
After doing some research, she began hand-blending herbs and Spanish olive oil into Splash and bottling it in her kitchen -- just in time for Christmas 2002.
The Splash is still hand-blended but is now bottled in a small cannery in Winter Springs.
Linebaugh and Vigoa decided to hire extra employees to run the cafe on Fridays and close it Saturday through Monday.
Hauling a trailer full of Splash throughout Florida -- and often out of state -- attending trade shows and marketing the product is how they spend their weekends now.
"As Russian missiles were in Cuba pointed at Miami, we were on a flight from Havana. Everything was fear-driven."
Miriam's brother who had left Cuba six months earlier, met them in Miami.
"We were refugees," she said. "We had to start over."
But they were refugees with marketable skills. It took some time for her father, who had been a lumberjack in Cuba to find work. But her mother, who was a seamstress in the garment industry, found work almost immediately after arriving in the United States.
Life in Miami was different -- radiation drills, fallout shelters, a different language and a new way of life. Miriam was one of only five children in her school who spoke Spanish.
Miriam was shaped into the person she is today by these experiences.
Miriam Vigoa didn't foresee making a Spanish olive oil splash in the health food industry when she added spices to her great-grandmother's herbed olive oil recipe and began serving it on menu items at Cafe Latte.
She was already busy running a business she purchased in 1983, Cypress Lighting -- -- maintaining and investing in real estate and helping run a coffee shop, Cafe Latte she opened with partner Kristi Linebaugh in 1995.
Sharing a bit of her heritage with cafe patrons who were requesting the Spanish olive oil -- now known as Canary Island Garlic and Herb Splash, made Miriam Happy
After doing some research, she began hand-blending herbs and Spanish olive oil into Splash and bottling it in her kitchen -- just in time for Christmas 2002.
The Splash is still hand-blended but is now bottled in a small cannery in Winter Springs.
Linebaugh and Vigoa decided to hire extra employees to run the cafe on Fridays and close it Saturday through Monday.
Hauling a trailer full of Splash throughout Florida -- and often out of state -- attending trade shows and marketing the product is how they spend their weekends now.
About the Author:
Using a recipe developed by her great-grandmother over 200 years ago in the Canary Islands as a base, Miriam Vigoa has harmonized the ingredients to make this Spanish olive oil product. For everything information about Canary Island Garlic and Herb Splash visit http://oliveoildip.com where you can purchase the product.
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